# Following mRNA from birth to death at single-molecule resolution

> **NIH NIH R35** · ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2024 · $420,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT:
Over the quarter century of this grant funding, we have been developing tools to investigate the fate of
single mRNA molecules in living cells. Most recently we have been able to image the real time translation
of proteins in living cells, and the degradation of mRNAs at a precise moment during the cell cycle. We
now would like to integrate all these processes into one coherent scheme, by imaging a single mRNA
molecule from birth to death. This provides technical challenges, due to the photobleaching of fluorescent
proteins and the difficulty of tracking mRNAs in a crowded cytoplasm. We propose in this application to
address these obstacles by developing new approaches to reduce photobleaching in order to track mRNAs
for longer times, equivalent to their lifetimes. We will reversibly photoactivate the mRNAs as they are
transcribed in the nucleus, and then follow the few mRNAs as they export into the cytoplasm, translate
and degrade. We will likewise simultaneously follow proteins bound to the mRNA in the nucleus that may
regulate these processes. This will allow us to follow a single mRNA and proteins bound to it throughout
its entire life cycle.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10906808
- **Project number:** 5R35GM136296-05
- **Recipient organization:** ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Robert H Singer
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $420,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-17 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10906808

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10906808, Following mRNA from birth to death at single-molecule resolution (5R35GM136296-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10906808. Licensed CC0.

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