- Saba Valadkhan
Dr. Saba Valadkhan is an
Iran ian biomedical scientist and an Assistant Professor andRNA researcher atCase Western Reserve University . In 2005, she was awarded theGE / "Science" [http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/pharmacia/prize/howto.shl Young Scientist Award] for her breakthrough in understanding the mechanism ofspliceosome s - "akin to finding the Holy Grail of the splicingcatalysis field" [http://www.payvand.com/news/05/aug/1088.html] - a critical area of research, given that "20 percent or 30 percent of all human genetic diseases are caused by mistakes that the spliceosome makes" [http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2005/0210ys-Valadkhan.shtml] . Valadkhan qualified as a medical doctor inIran , before moving to theUnited States to pursue post-graduate study atColumbia University inNew York .The main focus of her research is elucidating the structure and function of the catalytic core of the spliceosome by taking advantage of a novel, minimal spliceosome she recently developed. This minimal system, which consists of only two spliceosomal snRNAs, catalyzes a reaction identical to the splicing reaction. In addition to providing direct evidence for RNA catalysis in the spliceosome, and thus, settling the longstanding and central question of the identity of the catalytic domain, the minimal system provides a novel and powerful tool for studying the structure and function of the spliceosome.
External links
* [http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2005/0210ys-Valadkhan.shtml Interview]
* [http://www.rnaresearch.org/valadkhan.htm Departmental website]
* [http://www.case.edu/admin/aces/valadkhan.htm Faculty page]
* [http://www.payvand.com/news/05/aug/1088.html Young Scientist Award report]See also
* List of famous Iranian women
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.