Steven Hahn, PhD

Our genes act as a recipe book for our cells. They contain the instructions for making all the proteins that cells need — but there are only two copies of each gene, and our cells need hundreds if not thousands of copies of a protein to function properly. To address this, cells make many copies of a gene, which can be used by the protein-building factories as protein-making instructions. These copies are called messenger RNA, or mRNA. Dr. Steven Hahn studies the molecular machines that make mRNA. At any given time, only certain genes are copied into mRNA because only those proteins are needed for specific cellular functions. Dr. Hahn seeks to understand how the mRNA-producing machines work, and how cells turn them on and off at the right time. Alterations in this process occur in many human diseases, making it critical for researchers to better understand this fundamental process.