Mihaela Zavolan is a Professor of Computational and Systems Biology at the Biozentrum, University of Basel. Her group studies post-transcriptional mechanisms of gene regulation, combining computational and experimental approaches. A main line of research in the group is miRNA-dependent regulation of mRNA stability and translation. MiRNAs targets are involved in a wide range of processes, and they especially include transcription factors and epigenetic regulators, consistent with the demonstrated roles of miRNAs in developmental processes. By developing methods to predict miRNA targets and by assaying the response of predicted targets to perturbations in miRNA levels, the group aims to uncover miRNA-containing regulatory networks that are important for the establishment of cell identity. Recently, the group has started to investigate how RNA processing, alternative splicing and mRNA translation contribute to the establishment of cell identity. The group maintains many collaborations in Switzerland and abroad. Since 2014 Mihaela Zavolan is a member of the Academia Europea, and since 2015 she is an EMBO member.

For detail and recent publications: https://www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/zavolan