Professor Dr Thomas Tuschl

Research Priorities: functional genome analysis, RNA interference (RNAi), switching off genes, “short interfering RNA” (siRNA), microRNA (miRNA), silencing genes, hereditary diseases
Molecular biologist Thomas Tuschl is researching the human genome. He has developed the method of RNA interference for human cells. The method is an ideal tool for functional genome analysis and has been developed over the last 15 years into a new therapy for treating hereditary diseases.
Since the discovery of the genome, scientists have tried to switch off individual genes in order to understand their function better. Thomas Tuschl has achieved this with the RNA interference (RNAi) method. The phenomenon was previously known from worms and flies. Genes could be immobilised by injecting double-stranded RNA molecules into the animals. Thomas Tuschl discovered that RNA (ribonucleic acid) is firstly broken into short pieces, known as “short interfering RNA” (siRNA), and these disable the gene.
Using these siRNAs Thomas Tuschl could then also switch off human genes in cell cultures. He has thus made RNA interference useful for genome research. Researchers around the world are studying the function of genes in this way. New drugs can be developed on the basis of RNA interference. For example drugs are being clinically researched for a hereditary disease (amyloidosis), in which tiny protein threads damage the organs.
Thomas Tuschl is further researching the regulatory functions of RNA and its variant of microRNA (miRNA). MicroRNAs regulate gene expression and can silence genes. Tuschl wishes to explain the connections between the silencing of genes and hereditary diseases. With his team he is searching for microRNAs which could be linked to diseases. Depending on which messenger RNA affects the miRNA, it can promote or inhibit tumour development for example. Recently he has also been researching the functions of mRNA-binding proteins and developing methods for determining their binding sites.