Department Seminar

Upcoming Seminar

The RNA Polymerase–Ribosome Dance: Is It Hip Hop or Ballroom in Bacteria?
Prof. Gregor Blaha, UC Riverside

September 23, 2026
4:00pm-5:00pm in HSCI-103

Abstract

In our cells, DNA is kept inside the nucleus, separated from the machinery that makes proteins. Bacteria have no nucleus. This means a ribosome can begin translating an RNA molecule before RNA polymerase has even finished making it.

What happens when these two molecular machines work on the same RNA at the same time? Dr. Blaha will present work from his laboratory showing that RNA polymerase and the ribosome do more than simply follow one another. Their movements can influence each other, creating a dynamic interplay between transcription and translation.

Think of it as a molecular dance. DNA provides the music, RNA polymerase lays down the track, and the ribosome follows close behind. The question is: How tightly choreographed is the dance?

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Biosketch

Dr. Gregor Blaha studies how bacteria turn genetic information into proteins. His interest in protein translation began during his Ph.D. training at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. He later joined Thomas Steitz's laboratory at Yale University, where he used structural biology to study ribosomes—the molecular machines that build proteins.

Since joining UC Riverside, Dr. Blaha has expanded his research from protein synthesis to the connection between transcription, which copies DNA into RNA, and translation, which reads that RNA to make protein. His laboratory studies what happens when RNA polymerase and the ribosome work on the same RNA molecule at the same time—and how closely these two molecular machines coordinate their movements.