Our long-term goal is to understand the mechanism and control of eukaryotic translation initiation at the molecular level. Translation initiation is the rate-limiting step of protein biosynthesis and an important target for the control of gene expression. Unregulated translation initiation is an important phenotype of malignantly transformed cells. We are particularly interested in the biological effects of translational regulation by altering the choice of start codons, including non-AUG start codons.