Overview

Doctoral study program
Life Sciences (Faculty of Science, Masaryk University)

Supervisor
Dalibor Blažek

Annotation
CDK11 is ubiquitously expressed in all tissues and the CDK11 null mouse is lethal at an early stage of development indicating an important role for Cdk11 in the adult as well as during development. CDK11 is believed to play a role in RNAPII-directed transcription and co-transcriptional mRNA-processing, particularly alternative splicing and 3end processing. However, its genome-wide function in regulating the human transcriptome is unknown. Notably, several recent studies identified CDK11 as a candidate essential gene for growth of several cancers therefore, understanding the molecular mechanism(s) of CDK11-dependent gene expression would be also of significant clinical interest. In this research we will use various techniques of molecular biology and biochemistry to characterize genome-wide role of CDK11 in regulation of gene expression and tumorigenesis.

Recommended literature
Hluchy M, Gajduskova, P., Ruiz de los Mozos I., Rajecky M., Kluge M., Berger BT., Slaba Z. Potesil D., Weis E., Ule J., Zdrahal Z., Knapp S., Paruch K., Friedel CC., Blazek D*. CDK11 regulates pre-mRNA splicing by phosphorylation of SF3B1. Nature; 609(7928):829-834 (2022)
Gajduskova, P., Ruiz de Los Mozos I, Rajecky M., Hluchy M., Ule J., Blazek D*: CDK11 is required for transcription of replication dependent histone genes. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 27 (5):500-510 (2020)
Requirements for candidate
Background in molecular biology, biochemistry or life sciences. Interest in bioinformatics and data analyses is desirable.

More information on the research group: https://www.ceitec.eu/inherited-diseases-transcriptional-regulation/rg38

Information about the application process
https://www.ceitec.eu/ls-mm-phd/

Application webpage
https://www.ceitec.eu/functions-of-cyclin-dependent-kinase-11-cdk11-in-regulation-of-gene-expression-and-tumorigenesis/t11457