Jernej Murn, PhD

Lab Head

Jernej Murn, University of California, Riverside

Pronouns: he/him

Jernej Murn obtained his B.S. degree from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2001, working on chemical synthesis of biologically active enzyme inhibitors, and his Ph.D. degree in 2006 for his work on genetic mechanisms of programmed cell death in the CEA Laboratory for Functional Genomics in Évry, France. He moved to the US in 2008 to study cancer biology as a postdoc with Lloyd Trotman at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. In 2009, he changed course to molecular biology, training in epigenetics and RNA biology with Yang Shi at Harvard Medical School / Boston Children's Hospital as a Nancy Lurie Marks fellow. In 2017, he became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of California, Riverside. Research in the Murn lab focuses on three main areas of RNA biology: 1) the communication between RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and the effectors of RNA processing, 2) non-canonical functions of ancient enzymes, including RNases P and MRP, in human cells and 3) gene-regulatory roles of RNA modifications and their involvement in development, functioning, and disease of the nervous system. To support its research activities, the Murn lab also develops novel RNA technologies and receives generous funding from federal (NIH, NSF, and DOD) and private sources.