Dr. Richard W. Wozniak

Trying to understand a cellular process essential to life

CIHR backs cell biologist Richard Wozniak’s work to understand how genes are specifically and coordinately expressed to control cell growth

The Human Genome Project defines, for the first time, the blueprint for human life. The daunting challenge now facing scientists such as University of Alberta cell biologist Richard Wozniak is to understand how genes are specifically and coordinately expressed to control cell growth and differentiation.

Dr. Wozniak’s research team uses yeast as a model system to understand how the specificity and regulation of this transport system controls gene expression.

"Specifically, we’re proposing to characterize how the regulated movement of proteins in and out of the nucleus regulates gene expression through the cell division cycle." This process is essential to life, and when it goes awry, it has catastrophic consequences—including the development of human cancers, he points out.

Dr. Wozniak’s team received a substantial funding boost earlier this summer from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The CIHR awarded $851,445 over five years to back the researcher’s work on cell cycle regulated nuclear transport.

According to Dr. Wozniak, the DNA in every cell is encapsulated in the nucleus by an impermeable membrane called the nuclear envelope and the proteins that regulate its expression are synthesized in the cytoplasm. As a result, cells have made use of this physical separation by controlling the passage of molecules into the nucleus. This, he explains, governs the access of activators and repressors of gene expression to the DNA.

Moreover, embedded in the nuclear envelope are channels, called nuclear pores, through which all proteins must travel to access the DNA; however, only specially encoded proteins that contain specific amino acid sequences can pass the portal. This is governed by a class of specific transporters, called karyopherins, which bind to these sequences and escort the proteins through the nuclear pore.

"Rick's work on the regulation of macromolecular movement into and out of the nucleus has fundamental implications for the control of gene expression, as genes are for the most part housed in the nucleus, and is crucial to our understanding of the cellular control underlying all development and physiology, both normal and abnormal," says Cell Biology chair Rick Rachubinski.

For further information, please contact Dr. Richard W. Wozniak using the Email contact form or by phone at 780 492-1384