David Bartel

About

David Bartel is a professor of biology at MIT and a core member of the Whitehead Institute. He is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research focuses on molecular pathways that regulate eukaryotic gene expression by affecting the stability or translation of mRNAs. Specifically, he studies microRNAs and other small RNAs that specify the destruction and/or translational repression of mRNAs. His work also involves studying mRNAs, with particular attention to their untranslated regions and poly(A) tails, and how these regions recruit and mediate regulatory phenomena. Dr. Bartel has made significant contributions to understanding the biochemical basis of microRNA targeting efficacy, the coupling between poly(A)-tail length and translational efficiency, and the mechanisms of target-directed microRNA degradation. His research has advanced knowledge of noncoding regulatory RNAs, their role in gene regulation, and their impact on cellular processes.

Research topics

• Biology
• Biochemistry
• Cell biology

Selected publications

• The ZSWIM8 ubiquitin ligase mediates target-directed microRNA degradation

  Science · 2020-11-12 · 247 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  MicroRNAs (miRNAs) associate with Argonaute (AGO) proteins to direct widespread posttranscriptional gene repression. Although association with AGO typically protects miRNAs from nucleases, extensive pairing to some unusual target RNAs can trigger miRNA degradation. We found that this target-directed miRNA degradation (TDMD) required the ZSWIM8 Cullin-RING E3 ubiquitin ligase. This and other findings support a mechanistic model of TDMD in which target-directed proteolysis of AGO by the ubiquitin-…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Parkinson’s disease protein alpha-synuclein is a modulator of processing bodies and mRNA stability

  Cell · 2022 · 162 citations

  DOI

• ZSWIM8 destabilizes many murine microRNAs and is required for proper embryonic growth and development

  Genome Research · 2023-08-02 · 32 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  MicroRNAs (miRNAs) pair to sites in mRNAs to direct the degradation of these RNA transcripts. Conversely, certain RNA transcripts can direct the degradation of particular miRNAs. This target-directed miRNA degradation (TDMD) requires the ZSWIM8 E3 ubiquitin ligase. Here, we report the function of ZSWIM8 in the mouse embryo. Zswim8 −/− embryos were smaller than their littermates and died near the time of birth. This highly penetrant perinatal lethality was apparently caused by a lung sacculation…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Nuclear release of eIF1 restricts start-codon selection during mitosis

  Nature · 2024-10-23 · 29 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Control of poly(A)-tail length and translation in vertebrate oocytes and early embryos

  Developmental Cell · 2024-03-08 · 29 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  During oocyte maturation and early embryogenesis, changes in mRNA poly(A)-tail lengths strongly influence translation, but how these tail-length changes are orchestrated has been unclear. Here, we performed tail-length and translational profiling of mRNA reporter libraries (each with millions of 3' UTR sequence variants) in frog oocytes and embryos and in fish embryos. Contrasting to previously proposed cytoplasmic polyadenylation elements (CPEs), we found that a shorter element, UUUUA, together…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Post-transcriptional gene regulation

  NIH · $7.0M · 2016–2026

• NIH Grant R01GM067031

  NIH · $7.3M · 2016

• NIH Grant R56DK068348

  NIH · $230k · 2011

Frequent coauthors

• Stephen W. Eichhorn

  Harvard University

  94 shared

• Alexander O. Subtelny

  Harvard University

  88 shared

• Sean E. McGeary

  Center for Systems Biology

  85 shared

• Vikram Agarwal

  University of Washington

  69 shared

• Wendy K. Johnston

  Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  66 shared

• David E. Weinberg

  University of California, San Francisco

  65 shared

• Nelson C. Lau

  Boston University

  64 shared

• Charlie Y. Shi

  Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

  58 shared

Labs

• David Bartel LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Virology

  Harvard University

  1993

• B.A., Biology

  Goshen College

  1982

Awards & honors

• Member, National Academy of Sciences (2011)
• HHMI Investigator (2005)
• National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology (200…
• AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize (2002)

Similar researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Rudolf Jaenischh-295
• Robert A. Weinbergh-291
• Susumu Tonegawah-237