RNA Bioscience Initiative Faculty Recruits

April 2022

The investment in RNA research by the CU School of Medicine includes recruiting talented faculty to conduct their research on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Two members of that cohort – Olivia Rissland, DPhil, and Sujatha Jagannathan, PhD – are profiled on the following pages.

In addition, three other faculty members are part of the initial cohort of investigators in the RNA Bioscience Initiative.

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J. Matthew Taliaferro, PhD
Taliaferro is assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics and core member of the RNA Bioscience Initiative. He was recruited to CU in 2017. Taliaferro’s research focuses on the regulation of RNA localization and spatial organization within cells. His laboratory uses a variety of cutting-edge techniques to study how faulty regulation of RNA localization contributes to development of neurological diseases. Taliaferro earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012 and completed his postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

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Neelanjan Mukherjee, PhD

Mukherjee is assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics and co-director of the RNA Bioscience Initiative Summer Internship Program. He was recruited to CU in 2017. The goal of Mukherjee’s research is to quantitatively understand human RNA regulatory networks and how their dysregulation impacts human disease, particularly as it relates to production of steroid hormones and cancer. Mukherjee earned his PhD from Duke University in 2010 and completed his postdoctoral training at the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology in Germany in 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

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Srinivas Ramachandran, PhD
Ramachandran is assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics and core member of the RNA Bioscience Initiative. He was recruited to CU in 2018. Ramachandran’s research applies computational biology, genomics, biochemistry, and structural biology to understand chromatin dynamics and cellular memory in normal development and cancer. His laboratory also focuses on creation of diagnostic techniques to make health care more equitable and affordable. Ramachandran earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012 and completed his postdoctoral training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle in 2017.