Ke focuses on role of RNA function in health and disease including cancer
A computational biologist and inventor of genomic technologies, Shengdong Ke, Ph.D., has joined The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) as an assistant professor.
Ke has established his first independent laboratory after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the prestigious Rockefeller University, under the mentorship of Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Robert B. Darnell, M.D., Ph.D.
“My research focuses on RNA, a central node of genetic information flow from DNA to protein,” Ke says. “Malfunction of RNAs leads to many human diseases, including cancer and neurological diseases.”
Ke says he is motivated to “know the unknowns, and to push forward the scientific frontier.”
Ke earned his B.S. at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, China. Moving to Columbia University in New York, he completed M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in biological sciences with his Ph.D. mentor, Columbia Professor Lawrence Chasin. His Ph.D. was awarded “with distinction,” representing the top 10 percent of Columbia Ph.D. graduates.
He develops novel genomic technologies and computational algorithms to study molecular mechanisms of RNA biology, including RNA modifications, RNA-protein interactions and messenger RNA (mRNA) processing.
Ke was attracted to JAX because of “the great leadership and vision of JAX President and C.E.O. Edison Liu and Scientific Director of Mammalian Genetics Nadia Rosenthal, the highly productive and collaborative colleagues, and the strong scientific infrastructure.”