Alternative splicing patterns are unique in the brains of autistic people. Is this pattern a cause or consequence of the disorder? We could get some clues to solving this mystery from the phenotypes of spliceosome-related genetic mutations. Individuals with such mutations often present with neurodevelopmental disorders in general and autism spectrum disorder in particular. We hypothesize that altered pre-mRNA splicing is a cause of autism spectrum disorder and use high-throughput tools to study this connection.
We use molecular biology techniques and high-throughput sequencing to reveal the layers of pre-mRNA splicing regulation in health and disease. Specifically, we study how chromatin interacts with the spliceosome to alter alternative splicing patterns.
Website design by Yarden Salton-Morgenstern
tamar.guedj at huji.mail.ac.il
shiri.jaffe at huji.mail.ac.il
Ahmad Siam, Klil Cohen, Rauf Najar, Yehudit Harush, Sara Dahan, Mayra Petasny
Summer Intern 2017
Special volunteer from the "Israel experience" project.
Mai Baker, Mayra Petasny, Mercedes Bentata, Gillian Kay, Eden Engal, Yuval Nevo, Ahmad Siam, Sara Dahan, Maayan Salton. KDM3A regulates alternative splicing of cell-cycle genes following DNA damage. RNA, 2021, 10.1261/rna.078796.121.
Sara Dahan, Klil Cohen, Mercedes Bentata, Eden Engal, Ahmad Siam, Gillian Kay, Yotam Drier, Shlomo Elias and Maayan Salton. VEGFA’s distal enhancer regulates its alternative splicing in CML. NAR Cancer, 2021, 3(3).
Mayra Petasny, Mercedes Bentata, Andrea Pawellek, Mai Baker, Gillian Kay and Maayan Salton (2020). Splicing To Keep Cycling: The Importance of Pre-mRNA Splicing during the Cell Cycle. Trends in Genetics. 2021 Mar;37(3):266-278. Review
Mercedes Bentata, Guy Morgenstern, Yuval Nevo, Gillian Kay, Avital Granit Mizrahi, Mark Temper, Ofra Maimon, Liza Monas, Reham Basheer, Asa Ben-Hur, Tamar Peretz and Maayan Salton. Splicing Factor Transcript Abundance in Saliva as a Diagnostic Tool for Breast Cancer. Genes, 2020, 11(8), 880.
Roni Ben-Ami, ... Yuval Dor*, Dana G Wolf*, Maayan Salton*, Yotam Drier*, The Hebrew University-Hadassah COVID-19 diagnosis team. Large-scale implementation of pooled RNA extraction and RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 detection.Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 2020, 26 (9), 1248-1253.
Ahmad Siam, Mai Baker, Leah Amit, Gal Regev, Alona Rabner, Rauf Ahmad Najar, Mercedes Bentata, Sara Dahan, Klil Cohen, Sarah Araten, Yuval Nevo, Gillian Kay, Yael Mandel-Gutfreund and Maayan Salton. Regulation of alternative splicing by p300-mediated acetylation of splicing factors. RNA, 2019, 25(7), 813-824.
Maayan Salton, Wojciech K. Kasprzak, Ty Voss, Bruce A. Shapiro, Poulikos I. Poulikakos and Tom Misteli. Inhibition of vemurafenib-resistant melanoma by interference with pre-mRNA splicing. Nature Communications, 2015;6:7103.
Maayan Salton, Ty C. Voss and Tom Misteli. Identification by high-throughput imaging of the histone methyltransferase EHMT2 as an epigenetic regulator of VEGFA alternative splicing. Nucleic Acids Research, 2014;42(22):13662-73.
Maayan Salton, Yaniv Lerenthal, Shih-Ya Wang, David J. Chen and Yossi Shiloh. Involvement of Matrin 3 and SFPQ/NONO in the DNA damage response. Cell Cycle, 2010;9(8):1568-76.
Introduction to General Genetics (94627)
The aim of the course is to provide students basic knowledge in genetics of microorganisms (prokaryotes) and creatures with nucleus (eukaryotes), that will serve as a basis for future studies.
The course covers human hereditary and molecular genetics, with a strong genomics and human disease perspective. My part in the course focuses on epigenetic inheritance, the history of crispr and pre-mRNA splicing and disease.
Presentation skills (94604)
Nothing paralyses students more than having to present at a conference. It is a scary task, but a scientific career depends on how well we talk in public. Fortunately, improving your presentation skills is possible. The course is built to help reduce your anxiety, to teach you how to build an effective presentation and to improve your performance skills.
Lectures & Workshops
View from the campus cafeteria by Sarah Araten