Alicia Darnell

Incoming Assistant Professor in Pharmacology and Cancer Biology (Sept 2024).

Lab website: https://sites.duke.edu/darnelllab/

Protein synthesis is a critical integration point for cellular metabolism, growth, and gene expression. The Darnell lab (opening September 2024) studies the relationship between amino acid metabolism and protein synthesis in cancer cells, seeking to understand how and why amino acid limitation leads to codon-specific ribosome stalling and premature fall-off that inhibits protein production. We employ a variety of genetic and biochemical techniques including fluorescent reporter development, ribosome profiling, charged tRNA-seq, and metabolite/protein mass spectrometry to investigate this direct control of gene expression by amino acid physiology and the tRNA pool.

We are hiring graduate students, research technicians, and postdocs. If you are interested in joining, reach out to Alicia to discuss!