LARP Society Conference
Wednesday, 04 September 2024 to Sunday, 08 September 2024
The LARP Society Conference is being hosted at Worcester College Oxford from 5th – 8th September 2024. LARP Society is a UK Registered Charity that supports research into LARP proteins and has hosted biennial conferences nationally and internationally since it was founded in 2010. The talks cover broad aspects of translation to species-specific processes. This year’s talk schedule is summarised below. If you are interested in attending for a day, a few days or the entire meeting, please register here.
The meeting will start on Wednesday 4th September with a networking event at 6pm.
Day 1 – Thursday 5th September 2024
Session 1: Regulatory networks of RNA control: where do LARPs sit in the big picture?
09:15-09:55 Jack Keene (Duke, USA): From LARPS to RRMs to RNA Regulons
0955-10:20 Isotta Lorenzi (Würzburg, Germany): Factors and mechanisms of the post-transcriptional regulation of TOP mRNAs
10:20-10:50 Robert Silvers (Florida State, USA): Human La-Related Protein 6 and RNA Recognition
11:10-11:40 Ferenc Muller (Birmingham, UK): Transcription initiation site selection defines post-transcriptional mRNA fate
11:40-12:10 Richard Maraia (NIH, USA): The short, conserved region-2 (CR2) of LARP4 interacts with propellers 5-6 of ribosome-associated RACK1 protein and promotes mRNA translation
12:10-12:25 Flash talks: Raffaele Sabbatella (Palermo, Italy), Benedikt Daxl (Regensburg, Germany) and Lankani Gunaratne (Ohio State, USA)
Session 2: Understanding evolution: Why have the LARPs evolved such diverse and important roles?
13:40-14:10 Karen Lewis (Texas State, USA): The LARP6 La Module from Tetrabaena socialis reveals structural and functional differences from plant and animal LARP6 homologues
14:10-14:40 Mark Bayfield (York, Canada): Structural analysis of the S.pombe LARP1 homolog Slr1p reveals conserved amino acids in the La motif function in binding to proto-5’ TOP mRNAs
14:40-15:10 Juan Alfonzo (Ohio State, USA): Trypanosoma brucei La (TbLa) as a regulator of tRNA modifications
15:35-16:05 Daniel Jarosz (Stanford, USA): TITLE TBC
16:05-16:30 Brittney Remnant (York, Canada): The La protein Mlp1 mediates non-coding RNA biogenesis in Tetrahymena thermophila
16:30-16:55 Connor Loupelle (York, Canada): Interactions between human La protein and the tRNA methyltransferase TRMT1 influence methylation levels in tRNA substrates
Day 2 – Friday 6th September 2024
Session 3: LARPs in human disease
09:10-10:10 Davide Ruggero (UCSF, USA): Linking the translatome to diet, cancer and therapeutics
10:10-10:35 James Chettle (Oxford UK): LARP1 regulates oxidative stress and metabolism in the tumour microenvironment
10:55-11:25 Sarah Blagden (Oxford UK): Is high LARP1 an early cancer warning signal?
11:25-11:35 SPONSORED TALK: ThermoFisher Scientific
11:35-12:05 Gunhild Sommer (Regensburg, Germany): Functional characterization of T389 phosphorylation of RNA-binding protein La in neuroblastoma cells
12:05-12:30 Chenwan Jin (Oxford UK): LARP1 regulates macrophage mitochondrial metabolism and polarization in the tumour immune microenvironment
Session 4: Insights into the regulation of LARP1
13:30-14:00 Matthias Soller (Birmingham UK): Larp DM15 is a Cap1 TOP messenger RNA reader
14:00-14:25 Sathyen Prabhu (Pittsburgh USA): Investigation of LARP1 as a novel substrate of MNK1
14:25-14:50 James Saba (Johns Hopkins, USA): LARP1 binds free 40S subunits to regulate its own translation
Day 3 – Saturday 7th September 2024
Session 5: Insights from Ancient RNA Binders
09:10-10:10 Kristian Baker (Case Western USA): Interrogating the RNA and protein interaction networks mediating nonsense-mediated mRNA decay in yeast.
10:10-10:35 Giancarlo Abis (King College UK): Unravelling the RNA binding mechanism of LaRP4A and LaRP4B
10:35-11:05 Gunter Meister (Regensburg, Germany): Regulation of post-transcriptional gene silencing pathways through phosphorylation and protein degradation
11:25-11:55 Andrea Berman (Pittsburgh USA): Conservation of the TOP mRNA-LARP1-TOR axis
11:55-12:25 Faraz Mardakheh (Oxford UK): Chaos to control: the N-terminal IDR of LARP6 is crucial for its in vivo target selectivity and function.
12:25-12:55 Julian Eichlinger (Regensburg, Germany): The La protein protects RNA-Polymerase III transcripts from the TUT/DIS3L2 degradation pathway
Session 6: Novel biological processes regulated by the LARPs
13:45-14:15 Graham Pavitt (Manchester UK): The La-related protein Slf1 binds colliding ribosomes and prevents ribosome frameshifting to enhance translation of oxidative stress responsive mRNAs
11:25-11:50 Chris Jakobson (Cornell, USA): RNA chaperone Lhp1 is a genetic capacitor
14:40-15:10 Bruno Fonseca (Nanovation therapeutics): Extrahepatic delivery: the next frontier in mRNA therapeutics
Day 4 – Sunday 8th September 2024
Session 7: LARPs – Uniting the LARP family
0915-1015 The Great LARP Debate
1015-1035 Richard Maraia (NIH, USA): Summary and Closing Talk