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Peter J. Unrau
Professor
Molecular Biology & Biochemistry
Science
Areas of interest
RNA Chemistry and Evolution
Biography
Dr. Peter Unrau holds a B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics from McMaster University and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from MIT. After postdoctoral training in RNA catalysis with David Bartel at the Whitehead Institute, he joined Simon Fraser University in 2001. He is Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and is an Associate Member in the Departments of Chemistry and Physics. He is a cofounder of RNA Canada and holds awards for Excellence in graduate supervision and research. Dr. Unrau is the Director of a newly funded NSERC CREATE program—Biomedical and Environmental Sensor Training (BEST)—an interdisciplinary graduate training initiative for scientists and engineers to develop robust sensor systems for biomedical and environmental applications.
Education
- B.Sc., McMaster University
- Ph.D., M.I.T.
Selected Publications
- Symmetry breaking of fluorophore binding to a G-quadruplex generates an RNA aptamer with picomolar KD X Lu, LFM Passalacqua, M Nodwell, KYS Kong, G Caballero-García, EV Dolgosheina, AR. Ferre-D’Amare, R. Britton and PJ Unrau. (2024) Nucleic Acids Research 52 (14), 8039-8051.
- Harmonizing the growing fluorogenic RNA aptamer toolbox for RNA detection and imaging X Lu, KYS Kong, PJ Unrau. (2023) Chemical Society Reviews 52 (12), 4071-4098.
- E. coli 6S RNA complexed to RNA polymerase maintains product RNA synthesis at low cellular ATP levels by initiation with noncanonical initiator nucleotides CD Bonar, J Han, R Wang, SSS Panchapakesan, PJ Unrau. (2022) RNA 28 (12), 1643-1658.
- Processive RNA polymerization and promoter recognition in an RNA World. Cojocaru, R., & Unrau, P. J. (2021). Science, 371 (6535), 1225–1232.
- Live cell imaging of single RNA molecules with fluorogenic Mango II arrays AD Cawte, PJ Unrau, DS Rueda. (2020) Nature Communications 11 (1), 1283.
- RNA detection with high specificity and sensitivity using nested fluorogenic Mango NASBA A Abdolahzadeh, EV Dolgosheina, PJ Unrau. (2019) RNA 25 (12), 1806-1813.
Courses
Future courses may be subject to change.