Joy Xiang Sheng Nan

RESEARCH

RNA interacts with proteins, metabolites and other RNAs in myriad intricate ways to regulate gene expression and drive diverse cellular processes. While nucleic acid-based therapeutics (NATs) such as antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) and RNAi therapeutics have achieved breakthrough success, they benefited from design simplicity, i.e. direct RNA sequence complementarity with target transcripts. However, many functional RNA regulatory/sensing activities are due to their interactions with proteins and small molecules in living cells. Hence, there is a large functional space in RNA that is underutilized and has the potential to revolutionize NATs. To achieve this, we need to further our understanding of the higher-level protein-RNA interactions. My research program seeks to develop sequencing technologies to understand RNA-protein and RNA-small molecule interactions. We are also developing RNA-based therapeutics that harness these interaction principles.

Selected Publications

• Xiang, J. S., Mueller, J. R., Luo E-C., Schafer, D., Yee B. A., Schmok J. C., Her H. L., Jones K. L., Tan F. E., McVicar, R. N., Park S. S., Chen C. Y., Jin W., Le P., Brannan K. W., Dong K. D., Kofman, E. R., Vu A. Q., Song Y. S., Van Nostrand E. L., Leibel S. L., Yeo G. W. (2022). Discovery and functional interrogation of the RNA interactome of SARS-CoV-2 proteins.In review. Preprint available at https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.21.481223
• Townshend, B.*, Xiang, J. S.*, Manzanarez, G., Hayden, E. J., & Smolke, C. D. (2021). A multiplexed, automated evolution pipeline enables scalable discovery and characterization of biosensors. Nature communications, 12(1), 1-15.
• Xiang, J. S., Kaplan, M., Dykstra, P., Hinks, M., McKeague, M., & Smolke, C. D. (2019). Massively parallel RNA device engineering in mammalian cells with RNA-Seq. Nature communications, 10(1), 1-16.
• Mathur, M.*, Xiang, J. S.*, & Smolke, C. D. (2017). Mammalian synthetic biology for studying the cell. The Journal of Cell Biology, 216(1), 73-82.
• Townshend, B.*, Kennedy, A. B.*, Xiang, J. S., & Smolke, C. D. (2015). High-throughput cellular RNA device engineering. Nature methods, 12(10), 989-994.