简介

Brenda L. Bass, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Human Genetics, and a member of the Nuclear Control of Cell Growth & Differentiation Program at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Dr. Bass is known for her contributions in defining double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-mediated pathways, including the discovery of ADAR RNA editing enzymes, and models and experiments that established Dicer's role in RNA silencing. Her lab continues in vitro and in vivo studies of ADARs and Dicer, and recently started a new project to test the idea that long dsRNA, encoded in our genomes, signals environmental changes. A tenet of this hypothesis is that dsRNA binding proteins that recognize viral dsRNA to initiate an immune response, also bind to endogenous dsRNA, in some cases triggering an aberrant immune response. Conceivably, this model could explain the inflammatory component of many diseases, such as diabetes and cancer.