Dr. James Franzen

Genetics
K. Arndt
T.-L. Ashman
G. Campbell
D. Chapman
G. Hatfull
J. Hildebrand
L. Jacobson
S. Kalisz
J. Martens
W. Saunders
B. Stronach
S. Tonsor
R. Wood

Microbiology
J. Boyle
G. Hatfull
R. Hendrix
J. Lawrence
J. Pipas
M. Popa
R.L. Duda
S. Godfrey
V. Oke

Molecular Biology
K. Arndt
J. Franzen
P. Grabowski
G. Hatfull
R. Hendrix
L. Jen-Jacobson
J. Martens
C. Peebles
J. Pipas
J. Rosenberg
A. Schwacha
C. Walsh

Plant Biology
T.-L. Ashman
W. Carson
S. Kalisz
V. Oke
C. Partanen
S. Tonsor
B. Traw

Science Education
A. Bledsoe
K. Curto
L. Daniels
S. Godfrey
N. Kaufmann
C. LaFave
J. Newman
E. Polinko
M. Popa
L. Roberts
T. Seiflein
R. Sherwin
A. Slinskey Legg

Structural Biology
M. Grabe
J. Hempel
R. Hendrix
L. Jen-Jacobson
J. Rosenberg
A. VanDemark

Former Faculty

Photo of Dr.
Franzen

Self-Splicing RNA

Professor Emeritus

Dr. Franzen received his Ph.D. in 1960 from the the University of Illinois and joined the Department in 1961.

Currently, Dr. Franzen is not accepting graduate students in his laboratory. Dr. Franzen is not accepting undergraduate researchers, and does not sponsor students in other laboratories.

Professional Interests - Publications - Contact Information - Lab Personnel

Professional Interests of James Franzen

Professor Franzen's research is directed toward the elucidation of the structure and the mechanism of action of the mitochondrial and chloroplast self-splicing introns known as the Group II introns.

splicing

The current efforts of the laboratory focus on identifying the sequence of nucleotides in the downstream exon which affect various aspects of splicing activity. These exon effector actions include: increasing the rate of the rate-determining initial step of splicing, directing the splicing reaction to occur along the path of forming a branched intermediate, shifting the equilibrium of the second splicing step to favor the forward reaction direction, and protecting the 2'-5' phosphodiester linkage of the intermediate lariat branchpoint nucleotide from hydrolysis. These investigations are part of the collaborative efforts of Drs. Franzen and Peebles.

Publication Archive
27 Citations
11 Abstracts
0 PDFs

Recent Publications of James Franzen

Podar, M., J. Zhou, M. Zhang, J.S. Franzen, P.S. Perlman, and C.L. Peebles (1998) Domain 5 binds near a highly conserved dinucleotide in the joiner linking domains 2 and 3 of a group II intron. RNA 4:151-166

Boulanger, S.C., P.H. Faix, H. Yang, J.S. Franzen, C.L. Peebles, and P.S. Perlman (1996) Length changes in the joining segment between domains 5 and 6 of a group II intron inhibit self-splicing and alter 3' splice site selection. Mol. Cell. Biol. 16:5896-5904

Peebles, C.L., M. Zhang, P.S. Perlman, and J.S. Franzen (1995) Catalytically critical nucleotides in domain 5 of a Group II intron. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 92:4422-4426

Franzen, J.S., M. Zhang, T.R. Chay, and C.L. Peebles (1994) Thermal activation of a Group II intron reveals multiple conformational states. Biochemistry 33:11315-11326

Franzen, J.S., M. Zhang, and C.L. Peebles (1993) Kinetic analysis of the 5' splice junction hydrolysis of a group II intron promoted by domain 5. Nucleic Acids Res. 21:627-634

Dib-Hajj, S.D., S.C. Boulanger, S.K. Hebbar, C.L. Peebles, J.S. Franzen, and P.S. Perlman (1993) Domain 5 interacts with domain 6 and influences the second transesterification reaction of group II intron self-splicing. Nucleic Acids Res. 21:1797-1804

How to Contact James Franzen

US Mail
University of Pittsburgh
Department of Biological Sciences
367A Crawford Hall
4249 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Phone, FAX, Internet
Office : (412) 624-6988
Lab :
FAX : (412) 624-4759
Email : franzen+@pitt.edu
Web :

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