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Peter B. Moore

Sterling Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Biophysical Chemistry
E-mail: peter.moore@yale.edu
Web site: http://proton.chem.yale.edu

Biographical Sketch

B.S. Yale University, 1961
Ph.D. Harvard University, 1966
Postdoc Institut de Biologie Moleculaire, University of Geneva (Switzerland), 1966-1967
Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambrdige (UK), 1967-1969
Joined Yale faculty 1969
NIH Merit Award, 1986-1995
Fellow of AAAS, 1992
National Academy of Sciences, 1997
Rosenstiel Award, 2001
AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize, 2002
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2003

Research Description

Since 1980, a host of RNAs have been identified that contribute to gene expression beyond the set identified 40 years ago: rRNAs, mRNAs, and tRNAs. The RNA world is far larger than anyone thought even as recently as 10 years ago. While great progress has been made in the past decade, relative to what is known about proteins, our understanding of the structures of RNAs and the complexes it forms with proteins, and the relationship between RNA structure and the biological function remains primitive. The goal of this laboratory, broadly speaking, is to contribute to the advance of this important field.

All of the work going on in the group today has to do with the ribosome one way or another. On the one hand, in collaboration with Professor T.A. Steitz, we continue to work on the structure of the ribosome and the complexes it forms with substrates, inhibitors and protein factors crystallographically. In much of this work we take advantage of the atomic resolution structure we obtained a few years for the large ribosomal subunit. Now, for the first time, we can determine the structural consequences of mutations in both rRNA and in ribosomal proteins in that system. On the other hand, several members of the group are studying the translational control of ribosomal protein synthesis in bacteria using NMR, crystallography and molecular biology as tools. Finally, a project aimed at characterizing the complexes that form between snoRNAs and rRNA precursors in the nucleoli of mammalian cells is well under way.

Selected References

• Vallurupalli, P. & Moore, P. B. (2003). The solution structure of the loop E region of 5S rRNA from spinach chloroplasts. J. Mol. Biol. 325, 843-856.
• Schmeing, T. M., Moore, P. B. & Steitz, T. A. (2003). Structure of deacylated tRNA mimics bound to the E site of the large ribosomal subunit. RNA 9, 1345-1352.
• Klein, D. J., Moore, P. B. & Steitz, T. A. (2004). The roles of ribosomal proteins in structure, assembly and evolution of the large ribosomal subunit. J. Mol. Biol. 340, 141-177.
• Merianos, H., Wang, J. & Moore, P. B. (2004). The structure of a ribosomal protein S8/spc operon mRNA complex. RNA 10, 954-964.

Last modified: July 10, 2005 (kp)