Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program | University of California, San Francisco

Michael McManus, PhD
RNA Interference Pathways

Selected Publications | Complete Publications

phone	(415) 502-2049
email	michael.mcmanus@ucsf.edu
additional websites	Immunology Program Diabetes Center Lab Website
secondary research affiliation	Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Immunology

The McManus lab studies biological processes relating to RNA interference pathways, using mammalian cell lines the mouse as a model. This includes the study of small (18-26 nucleotide) regulatory noncoding RNAs of biological significance, such as microRNAs, and the genetic factors involved in small RNA genesis. We would like to understand the pathways and mechanisms of small RNAs, and develop technologies that will improve our efforts to intersect human disease. The lab has efforts towards understanding how microRNAs contribute to the specification of cell fate, and how disregulation of microRNAs may contribute to human disease. In addition, more than a hundred mouse small RNA knockout models are being made in the lab.

We believe that the small regulatory RNAs that have been discovered are just the 'tip of the iceberg' in a set of important biology that we are far from understanding. Based on our studies of this biology, we have developed tools and agents that usurp this pathway for the interrogation of gene function and the potential use in the intervention of human disease. We are particularly excited about a new method we developed to rapidly screen for gene function in mammalian cells— using RNAi libraries and deep sequencing to dissociate members of functional pathways. We welcome trainees that are interesting making use of the above systems to help us understand the exciting world of noncoding RNA.

Selected Publications

Huang TH, Loeb GB, Hsu R, Heidersbach A, Brincat A, Lebbink RJ, McManus MT
(2009). Upregulation of miR-21 by HER2/neu signaling promotes cell invasion, JBC, epublished ahead of print.

Bassik M, Lebbink R, Churchman LS, Ingolia NT, Patena W, LeProust EM, Patena W,
Schuldiner M, Weissman JS, McManus MT (2009). Rapid creation and quantitative
monitoring of high coverage shRNA libraries, Nature Methods, e-published ahead of print.

Cuellar T, Davis T, Loeb G, Nelson PT, Harfe, BD, Ullian E, McManus MT (2008). Dicer loss in striatal neurons produces behavioral and neuroanatomical phenotypes in absence of neurodegeneration, PNAS, 105(14):5614-9.

Osokine I, Hsu R, Loeb G, McManus MT (2008). Unintentional miRNA ablation is a riskfactor in gene knockout studies, PLoS Genetics, 15;4(2):e34.

Zhao Y, Ransom JF, Li A, Vedantham V, von Drehle M, Muth AN, Tsuchihashi T,
McManus MT, Schwartz RJ, Srivastava D (2007). Dysregulation of Cardiogenesis,
Cardiac Conduction, and Cell Cycle in Mice Lacking miRNA-1-2. Cell, 129(2):303-17.

Harfe BD*, McManus MT*, Jennifer Mansfield, and Tabin CJ (2005). The RNAse III
enzyme Dicer is required for morphogenesis but not patterning of the vertebrate limb,
PNAS, 102(31):10898-90. *equal corresponding authors

McManus MT (2004). Small RNAs in immune regulation, REVIEW, Immunity, 21(6):747-56. Mansfield, JH, Harfe B, Nissen, R, Obenaur J, Srineel J, Chaudhuri A, Farzan-Kashani R, Zuker M, Pasquinelli AE, Ruvkyun G, Sharp PA, Tabin CJ, McManus MT (2004). microRNA-responsive transgenes reveal Hox-like and other developmentally regulated patterns of vertebrate microRNA expression. Nature Genetics, 36 (10):1079-1083.

Ventura A, Meissner A, Dillon CP, McManus MT, Sharp PA, Van Parijs, L, Jaenisch R,
Jacks, T (2004). A Cre-lox based method for conditional RNA interference in mice and
cells. PNAS, 101(28):10380-10385.

information last updated August 2009