Institute of Molecular Biology of Barcelona (IBMB)

A team of researchers led by the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona has mapped the human spliceosome for the first time. This complex and partially unknown cellular machinery is responsible for cutting and splicing the RNA fragments encoded by genes in different ways, making it possible to obtain a wide variety of proteins from the same sequence. Its alteration is related to processes such as cancer, neurodegenerative processes or various rare diseases. According to the researchers, who publish the results in the journal Science, “by knowing exactly what each part does, we can find completely new angles to address a broad spectrum of diseases”.