Structural Basis of RNA Delivery to Mitochondria for Gene Therapy
Strukturalne podstawy dostarczania RNA do mitochondriów na potrzeby terapii genowych
Principal Investigator: Katarzyna Bandyra (Project partners: Ben Luisi and ExploRNA Therapeutics).
Foundation for Polish Science - FIRST TEAM FENG
Total funding: PLN 3 985 320, including PLN 2 099 970 from European Funds
Oct 1st 2024 - Sept 30th 2028
#FENG.02.02-IP.05-0186/23
Katarzyna Bandyra (PI)
The research project entitled “The Structural Basis of RNA Delivery to Mitochondria for Gene Therapy Purposes” is funded under the 2.2 FENG First Team programme by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP), Poland and the European Funds for Smart Economy 2021–2027 (FENG).
The project aims to investigate putative RNA-mediated communication between the nucleus and mitochondria in human cells. Its central objective is to identify and characterise the molecular system responsible for shuttling RNA between these two compartments, thereby opening new possibilities for gene therapy approaches targeting mitochondrial diseases. To achieve this, the team will search for RNA molecules present in human mitochondria that do not originate from the mitochondrial genome. This will be accomplished using RNA pull-down approaches combined with RNA sequencing, alongside the identification of protein factors that may mediate RNA trafficking between the nucleus and mitochondria. In parallel, electron cryomicroscopy will be employed to determine the structural basis of key protein-RNA complexes involved in this process. Building on these findings, the researchers will design an RNA Mitoguide, a synthetic RNA molecule deliberately targeted to mitochondria. Successful development of such a system would represent a major milestone in the creation of novel strategies to combat mitochondrial dysfunctions. The outcomes of this project are expected to be of broad relevance, with potential applications in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies developing RNA-based gene therapies. The results will also be highly valuable to the scientific community, providing new tools and insights to accelerate research, and ultimately to the general public - particularly individuals affected by mitochondrial disorders.
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NEWS related to the project
- 2024/07 FIRST TEAM FENG grant award announced
- 2024/10/01 FIRST TEAM project started
- 2024/12 Navid Bakshi joins the project team as a PhD student
- 2025/02/17 New equipment in the lab! See JESS from Bio-techne
Thanks to the 2.2 FENG First Team programme of the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP), Poland, and the European Funds for Smart Economy 2021–2027 (FENG), we are excited to welcome Jess to the lab - a Simple Western™ system enabling fully automated, capillary-based Western blot analysis. With its exceptional sensitivity, Jess enables reliable detection of even low-abundance proteins and protein crosslinks from human cells, significantly accelerating our research progress.
- 2025/04 Dr Katarzyna Szafran joins the project team as a postdoctoral fellow
- 2025/06 2nd RNA conference - poster presentation
- 2025/09/25 Review on human PNPase published in Bioscience Reports (doi: 10.1042/BSR20240504)
Our review on human PNPase and its role in mitochondrial RNA metabolism has now been published and is available online.
- 2025/10 Dorota Barabasz joins the project team as a technician
- 2025/11 Two new students join the team
We are excited to welcome Justyna Jazowska and Paulina Rawska as the newest members of our team, joining the 2.2 FENG First Team project. Justyna and Paulina, both Master's students, will focus on investigating mitochondrial proteins involved in RNA metabolism.
