Spring 2026 Grantee Highlight:
Eric Van Nostrand

Alternative splicing is a fundamental process that allows a single gene to produce multiple protein isoforms with distinct functions. By generating different protein variants from the same genetic sequence, alternative splicing helps shape tissue-specific functions and developmental programs throughout the body. Disruptions in this process are associated with numerous diseases, yet many of the molecular mechanisms that regulate alternative splicing remain poorly understood.

The Van Nostrand lab studies a group of small regulatory RNAs known as snRNAs, which are critical components of the cellular machinery that carries out splicing. Although researchers have long known that specific nucleotides within snRNAs often contain post-transcriptional modifications, how these modifications vary across normal and disease tissues, and how they influence alternative splicing outcomes, remains largely unknown.

The team is developing improved methods to comprehensively profile snRNA modifications and determine how changes in these molecular markers alter splicing patterns. Their research aims to identify how distinct snRNA modification states create unique programs of alternative splicing during development and disease.

By revealing how snRNA modifications shape alternative splicing, this work could provide new insights into the molecular basis of development and disease while establishing a foundation for understanding how altered RNA modification states contribute to human disorders.

Learn more about the Van Nostrand Lab: www.evannostrandlab.com