David P. Bartel, PhD

Member, Whitehead Institute Professor of Biology, MIT 617.258.5287 dbartel@wi.mit.edu

Whitehead Member David Bartel has made major contributions to recent advances in understanding the roles that ribonucleic acid (RNA) plays in contemporary biology and may have played in early evolution. ADD VIDEO CLIP HERE.

Bartel and co-workers have discovered hundreds of tiny RNAs, known as microRNAs, which are thought to regulate gene expression in animal and plant cells. The lab employs biochemical, molecular, genetic, and computational approaches to identify additional microRNAs and determine their biological roles and the molecular mechanisms of their action. Among other findings, their analyses indicate that microRNA genes comprise nearly one percent of human genes, and that microRNAs play important regulatory roles during the development of mammals and plants.

Additionally, Bartel and his colleagues have investigated RNA’s ability to catalyze reactions and studied how new RNA enzymes (ribozymes) emerge. The group has created new ribozymes with enzymatic activities thought to have been required early in evolution, before the emergence of enzymes made of protein. For example, the researchers have generated a ribozyme that synthesizes small pieces of RNA, supporting the idea of an "RNA world" during the early evolution of life that featured RNA self-replication. [ RNA world 220k 56k]. Further work in this area may point toward the eventual synthesis of minimal forms of life based on RNA.

Among its work, the group also has designed a single RNA sequence that can fold into either of two ribozymes, raising the possibility that biological RNAs without structural or functional similarity might still share a common ancestry.

The Bartel group also made significant contributions in developing RNA interference, a powerful biochemical tool that works by blocking the delivery of genetic messages from DNA. Important advances for the new small interfering RNA technique, which extends RNAi to mammalian cells, began in Bartel’s laboratory.

Bartel joined Whitehead Institute in 1994 as a Whitehead Fellow, following the completion of his PhD at Harvard University. In 1996 he was appointed an Associate Member of Whitehead and assistant professor of biology at MIT. Bartel is now a Member at Whitehead and professor at MIT.

Selected Publications

Lim, L.P., Glasner, M.E., Yekta, S., Burge, C.B., and Bartel, D.P. (2003). Vertebrate microRNA genes. Science 299: 1540.

Chen, C.Z., Li, L., Lodish, H.F., and Bartel, D.P. (2004). MicroRNAs modulate hematopoietic lineage differentiation. Science 303: 83-86.

Yekta, S., Shih, I-H., and Bartel, D.P. (2004). MicroRNA-directed cleavage of HOXB8 mRNA. Science, 304: 594-596.

Lau, N.C., Lim, L.P., Weinstein, E.G., and Bartel, D.P. (2001). An abundant class of tiny RNAs with probable regulatory roles in Caenorhabditis elegans. Science 294: 858-862.

Reinhart, B.J. and Bartel, D.P. (2002). Small RNAs correspond to centromere heterochromatic repeats. Science 297: 1831.

Rhoades, M.W., Reinhart, B.J., Lim, L.P., Burge, C.B., Bartel, B., and Bartel, D.P. (2002). Prediction of plant microRNA targets. Cell 110: 513-520 .

Johnston, W.K., Unrau, P.J., Lawrence, M.S., Glasner, M.E., and Bartel, D.P. (2001). RNA-catalyzed RNA polymerization: Accurate and general RNA-templated primer extension. Science 292: 1319-1325.

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