Hesselberth Lab

🤝 Our Mission. We are a collaborative research laboratory comprising RNA biologists, technology developers, and data analysts focused on discovering and translating fundamental principles of RNA regulation.

🧬 Core Research. Our major focus in the lab is to understand protein translation through the lens of transfer RNA (tRNA). Transfer RNAs link the RNA and protein worlds, and our new approaches enable us to tackle questions using new technologies, including the application of nanopore analysis to understand the dynamic use of tRNA by cells.

💊 Clinical Applications. Our newest efforts focus on RNA therapeutics. We work with clinicians at Children’s Hospital Colorado to develop RNA therapies for pediatric genetic diseases (lately focused on retinopathies), and with immunologists and virologists to develop new ways to manipulate and understand the mammalian immune system.

See our publications for more detail on these studies.

selected publications

  1. white-aa-trna-seq.jpg
    Nanopore sequencing of intact aminoacylated tRNAs
    Laura K White, Aleksandar Radakovic, Marcin P Sajek, Kezia Dobson, Kent A Riemondy, Samantha Pozo, Jack W Szostak, and Jay R Hesselberth
    bioRxiv, Nov 2024
  2. white-43-mods.jpg
    Comparative analysis of 43 distinct RNA modifications by nanopore tRNA sequencing
    Laura K White, Kezia Dobson, Samantha Pozo, Jill M Bilodeaux, Shelby E Andersen, Amber Baldwin, Chloe Barrington, Nadine Koertel, Federico Martinez-Seidel, Saylor M Strugar, and 3 more authors
    Jul 2024
  3. sheridan-portable-program.jpg
    A specific and portable gene expression program underlies antigen archiving by lymphatic endothelial cells
    Ryan M Sheridan, Thu A Doan, Cormac Lucas, Tadg S Forward, Aspen Uecker-Martin, Thomas E Morrison, Jay R Hesselberth, and Beth A Jiron Tamburini
    Apr 2024
  4. rna-repair.jpg
    Nanopore sequencing of internal 2'-PO4 modifications installed by RNA repair
    Laura K White, Saylor M Strugar, Andrea MacFadden, and Jay R Hesselberth
    RNA, Jun 2023
  5. white-review-nanopore.jpg
    Modification mapping by nanopore sequencing
    Laura K White, and Jay R Hesselberth
    Front. Genet., Oct 2022

news

May 2, 2025
  • We were awarded a Proof of Concept grant from the Colorado OEDIT Advanced Industries Accelerator program.
  • Welcome to Emily DeCurtis, joining the lab from the Molecular Biology program.
  • Ira Fleming was awarded an NIH/NIAID F30 “Investigating the role of type 1 interferon signaling on vaccine stability within lymphatic endothelial cells”
Feb 27, 2024
  • Welcome to Lane Anderson, a rotation student from the Molecular Biology program.
  • Welcome to Emily DeCurtis, a rotation student from the Molecular Biology program.
  • Welcome to Grace Li, an undergraduate researcher from UC Denver, and welcome back Sami del Pozo, RBI summer intern.
  • We were awarded an NSF MFB grant with Laura White, Olivia Rissland, and Matt Taliaferro to study “Cracking the Codes: Understanding the Rules of mRNA Localization and Translation”.
Jul 9, 2023
  • Welcome to Christina Akirtava, PhD, who joined the RBI Informatics Fellows, and a new PRA, Kelly McEntee.
  • Ira Fleming was appointed to the Molecular Biology T32 grant.
  • Jay was promoted to Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.
  • Welcome to three new students Ira Fleming (MSTP > MOLB), Ashlyn Stahly, (MSTP > MOLB), and Jill Bilodeaux (MICB), a new PRA (Kezia Dobson), and a summer intern (Samantha del Pozo from the RBI summer internship).
  • Farewell to Saylor Strugar, who is joining the University of Wisconsin for graduate school, Rachel Ancar, MD, PhD, who graduated from the CU MSTP and is moving to Mass General Hospital for residency, Mandy Richer, PhD, who took a position at Honeycomb Bio, Tyler Matheny, PhD, who took a position at Sophia Genetics, and Aspen Martin, who took a position with Foresight Diagnostics.
  • Jay won the CU Anschutz Research Faculty Collaborator Award.
  • We were awarded a Cancer League of Colorado collaborative award with Linda van Dyk, PhD to study “Immune targeting therapies to disrupt virus-associated lymphomas.