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 BIOGRAPHY |
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Professor O'Brien earned his Ph.D. in physiology and biochemistry at Marquette University in 1964 for his work on the thyroid hormone control of mitochondrial content. He discovered mitochondrial ribosomes as a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. G.F. Kalf. Dr. O'Brien joined the University in 1966. He was a NATO Senior Science Fellow, an EMBO Research Fellow, a Visiting Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany, and a Visiting Scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz. From 1980 to 1982 he was Interim Chairman of our Department. From 1982 to 1987, he was founding co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research.
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RESEARCH DESCRIPTION |
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Our laboratory has developed the bovine
mitochondrial ribosome as a model system to
address several questions related to the structure,
function, biosynthesis and evolution of these
interesting ribosomes. A three dimensional
model is being developed for the mammalian
mitoribosomal small subunit. Chromosomal localization
of human mitoribosomal genes is important for those
mitoribosome proteins involved in genetic disease.
Coordinate synthesis of the 85 different mitoribosomal
proteins (nuclear gene products) with the mitochondrial
ribosomal RNA (a mitochondrial gene product) is under
investigation. Two of the mitochondrial ribosomal proteins,
MRPS29 and MRPS30, may also may be involved in
apoptosis. The mitochondrial mRNAs are highly structured
and special initiation factors are required to translate
these unusual messages. |
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