New research shows how cells control splicing [Video]

Before living organisms can use the genetic instructions encoded in DNA, they must first transcribe genes into RNA, which carry instructions for building proteins that will carry out the work to be done in a cell. But the process isn’t straightforward. Frequently, pieces of RNA need to be removed along the way, a process called splicing.

Jonathan Staley, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago, just published a new study in the journal Genes & Development that delves more into how the splicing process works. We spoke to him about what he and his colleagues discovered.

Can you describe splicing and how it’s involved in the process of gene expression?

Splicing is an intermediate step in the …