Ever wonder how Pol II transcription starts? So did many several decades ago. Works from Roeder, Hahn, Buratowski, Tjian (and so many more) have ironed out the mechanism of Pol II recruitment and initiation in eukaryotic cells. And these are literally in the textbooks.
At the center of it all is this one protein called TBP. An essential gene, TBP is conserved throughout Archaea and Eukarya. Without it, you don’t get transcription… Or do you???
Well, for reasons we won’t get to for now, we decided to revisit TBP, even though it seemed like it was all figured out a while ago. What we found blew our minds. Turns out, at least in mouse embryonic stem cells, Pol II doesn’t need TBP to transcribe genes!
mouse ES cells don’t even need TBP to induce transcription of silent genes! So what is going on? Read all about it here!
Congratulations to all members of the Teves lab, especially James and Thomas who spearheaded this project together.
Almost exactly one year ago, UBC closed all non-essential research and moved all classes online. It’s been a heck of a year, but we’re all lucky to be safe and healthy.
These covid-times have been challenging, but we are grateful to be able to celebrate together, even if it means standing 6 feet apart. Thank you to Thomas for arranging for a pleasant surprise!
Friday Jan 17, 2020, the lab took a field trip to Hillcrest Vancouver Curling Club where lab members learned basics of curling. Fun day! We hope to do it again.
We are honored and grateful for this unique opportunity. Dr. Teves joins 8 other scholars as winners of this year’s competition. For more information on the Wall Scholar Program and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, please see https://pwias.ubc.ca/announcements/2020-2021-wall-scholars
Welcome to Shivani Kundra as the newest member of the Teves lab. Shivani received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the Panjab University. Prior to joining us, she did a postdoctoral training in the Lemos lab at the University of Florida. We look forward to her time here!
Welcome to Hazel, the lab’s first directed studies student. After 16-month co-op, Hazel returns to finish her Bachelors with a major in Biochemistry. She will be doing her thesis project with us. We look forward to your time here!
We are all very sad that Jeffrey is leaving the lab to resume his undergraduate degree. He now has the distinction of being the first lab member, as well as the first lab alumnus. Thank you for everything and we wish you all the best with your future career.