Prof. Rivka Dikstein

Regulation of transcription and mRNA translation is fundamental to all biological activities and is frequently altered in diseases. Our broad research interests are (i) to elucidate how transcription and translation control the cellular response to environmental stimuli; (ii) to reveal the connections between these processes and (iii) to develop drugs to manipulate these processes for potential treatment of cancer, chronic inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. We address these issues utilizing several biological systems: 

• Spt4/Spt5 (DSIF), a transcription elongation factor involved in stress responses and neurodegenerative diseases 

• Regulation of translation initiation by TISU (a transcription and translation regulatory element), stress and mitogenic signals 

• RNA modifications as mediators of the crosstalk between gene expression stages