Agata Stepien: The Plant Cell First Author

Agata Stepien, first author of “Chromatin-associated microprocessor assembly is regulated by the U1 snRNP auxiliary protein PRP40”

Current Position: Postdoc, AMU, Poland

Education: PhD, AMU, Poland; Msc, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Poland

Non-scientific Interests: reading, singing and chasing after my kids

Brief bio: When I received my Engineer and MSc degree in biotechnology from the University of Agriculture in Krakow I moved to Poznan for my PhD, and worked in the group of Prof. Jarmolowski and Prof. Szweykowska-Kulinska at Adam Mickiewicz University. My PhD research was focused on the characterization of the crosstalk between the microprocessor and the spliceosome in plants by molecular biology, microscopic and biochemical techniques. During this work, I discovered the regulatory role of PRP40 in microRNA biogenesis. Further studies revealed that it also coordinates RNAPII transcription and the microprocessor assembly on microRNA precursors while they are synthesized by RNAPII. After graduating I got my first Postdoc position in K. Dorota Raczynska’s group to study the role of U7 snRNA in human cells. In 2019, I joined STOP lab to investigate transcription termination changes during cancer progression.