Departmental Seminar: Dr. Pedro Miura, University of Connecticut
Please join us for a Departmental Seminar on Friday, December 5, 2025:
Speaker: Pedro Miura, PhD
Institution: University of Connecticut
Host: Dr. Craig Smibert
Time: 11:00 AM
Location: MaRS Room 1622
Talk Title: “Alternative Cleavage and Polyadenylation: Regulation and Function.”
Abstract: Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is a critical co/post-transcriptional process that enhances RNA isoform diversity, regulating mRNA stability, localization and translation in a spatiotemporal manner. Most human genes are subjected to APA regulation, which usually changes the content of the 3’ Untranslated Region (UTR). This regulation is most apparent across different tissues and in response to cell proliferation status. Neurons tend to preferentially express longer 3’UTR variants as a result of selecting distal polyA sites. I will discuss how this is regulated, and describe a new method that accurately quantifies alternative 3’UTR isoforms transcriptome-wide. In addition to regulation, our lab studies the functional roles of specific 3’UTR mRNA isoforms. We have previously uncovered functional roles for long 3’UTRs in the neuronal development of Drosophila and mice. I will describe new work that investigates phenotypes resulting from long 3’UTR manipulation in cultured human neurons.