Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR)


http://www.waimr.uwa.edu.au

Professor Oliver Rackham

Oliver Rackham

Phone: +61 8 9224 0330
Email: oliver.rackham@waimr.uwa.edu.au

My research focuses on molecular interactions involving RNA, the development of new genetic systems to study them and engineering them for applications in biotechnology and medicine. For my doctoral research I studied RNA-protein interactions important to mRNA transport in mammalian cells, at the University of Otago, New Zealand. In 2003, I relocated to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge University, UK, as an MRC Career Development Fellow. There I used directed evolution to re-engineer the protein synthesis machinery within cells. My research at the WAIMR falls into two areas of interest: engineering and understanding mammalian RNA-binding proteins, and synthetic biology using microbial model organisms.

Qualifications

1997BSc (Hons, first class) - Biochemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
2003PhD - Biochemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Thesis Title: "RNA-protein interactions in living cells"

Research Interests

  • Synthetic biology
  • RNA-protein interactions

Current Research

Synthetic Biology

One of the key aims of synthetic biology is to program cells with new functions. To achieve this aim it will be necessary to create additional, new components that interact in a programmable manner, both with each other and with the existing cellular network. To engineer these components we have created a number of powerful new genetic selection approaches that can be used to tailor the molecular specificities of genes, RNAs and proteins in bacteria and yeast. Current projects involve manipulating bacteria to efficiently express proteins containing selenium and engineering yeast to produce new antibiotics.

RNA-binding proteins

From synthesis to destruction, mRNAs are associated with an array of proteins. Proteins control the efficiency of transcription, processing, nuclear export, translation, localization and degradation of mRNA. The importance of regulation at the level of mRNA has become increasingly apparent with the discovery of disease causing defects in these processes. We are using synthetic biology and transcriptomic approaches to engineer and understand mammalian RNA-binding proteins for use as tools in biotechnology and as therapeutics for human diseases.

Scientific Involvement

  • American Chemical Society - Member 2006 onwards.
  • Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology - Member 2006 onwards.

Major Grants Awarded

  • ARC Discovery Project Grant [Sole CI]
  • NHMRC Project Grants [CIA and CIB]
  • ARC Future Fellowship [Sole CI]
  • NHMRC Peter Doherty Research Fellowship [Sole CI]
  • Clive & Vera Ramaciotti Foundation Biomedical Research Grant [Sole CI]
  • Medical Research Foundation Grants [Sole CI]
  • Ada Bartholomew Medical Research Grant [Sole CI]

Top Publications

  1. Filipovska A, Rackham O. 2012. Modular recognition of nucleic acids by PUF, TALE and PPR proteins. Molecular Biosystems DOI: 10.1039/C2MB05392F [NCBI PubMed Entry]
  2. Filipovska A, Razif MF, Nygård KK, Rackham O. 2011. A universal code for RNA recognition by PUF proteins. Nature Chemical Biology 7(7):425-7. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
  3. Filipovska A, Rackham O. 2011. Designer RNA-binding proteins: New tools for manipulating the transcriptome. RNA Biology 8(6):978–83. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
  4. Filipovska A, Rackham O. 2008. Building a parallel metabolism within the cell. ACS Chemical Biology 3(1):51-63. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
  5. Rackham O, Wang K, Chin JW. 2006. Functional epitopes at the ribosome subunit interface. Nature Chemical Biology 2(5):254-8. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
  6. Rackham O, Chin JW. 2006. Synthesizing cellular networks from evolved ribosome-mRNA pairs. Biochemical Society Transactions 34(Pt 2):328-9. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
  7. Rackham O, Chin JW. 2005. Cellular logic with orthogonal ribosomes. Journal of the American Chemistry Society 127(50):17584-5. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
  8. Rackham O, Chin JW. 2005. A network of orthogonal ribosome·mRNA pairs. Nature Chemical Biology 1(3):159-66. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
  9. Rackham O, Brown CM. 2004. Visualization of RNA-protein interactions in living cells: FMRP and IMP1 interact on mRNAs. EMBO Journal 23(16):3346-55. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
  10. Jacobs GH, Rackham O, Stockwell PA, Tate WP, Brown CM. 2002. Transterm: a database of mRNAs and translational control elements. Nucleic Acids Research 30(1):310-1. [NCBI PubMed Entry]