About Student Research

Garrett Soukup (1993–1997)

In vitro selection methods to identify RNAs that bind duplex DNA

Garrett Soukup graduated from Northwest Missouri State University and did his Ph.D. thesis research in the Maher lab (then at the University of Nebraska Medical Center), introducing the in vitro selection (SELEX) process after a training interval in the laboratory of Andrew Ellington, one of the inventors of the technology. Garrett performed in vitro and in vivo genetic selections to understand prospects for use of SELEX methods in finding novel RNA molecules with novel inhibitory functions. A key area of interest was the potential application of SELEX to identify RNAs that bind double-stranded DNA. Garrett's work included in vitro selections to optimize DNA recognition by RNA using triple helix formation in libraries that maximized display if the interacting macromolecules, and in techniques for reversible immobilization of duplex DNA on solid supports.