Group II intron Marlene Belfort

Research Scientist, Wadsworth Center

Distinguished Professor

Department of Biomedical Sciences and

Department of Biological Sciences

SUNY Albany


Research Interests

Dynamics and structure of self-splicing introns and inteins, their role in genome evolution and biotechnology. More information on Wadsworth Center page or SUNY Biological Sciences page


Selected Publications

Redox-responsive zinc-finger is fidelity switch in homing endonuclease, promoting intron promiscuity under oxidative stress (2011), J. B. Robbins, D. Smith, M. Belfort, Curr. Biol., 21, 243-248 (more ...)

The group II intron ribonucleoprotein precursor is a large, loosely packed structure (2011), T. Huang, T. Shaikh, K. Gupta, L. Contreras-Martin, R.A. Grassucci, G.D. Van Duyne, J. Frank, and M. Belfort., Nucleic Acids Res., 39, 2845-2854. Featured article (top 5%) (more ...)

Nuclear expression of a group II intron is consistent with spliceosomal intron ancestry (2010), V. R. Chalamcharla, M. J. Curcio, M. Belfort, Genes Dev., 24, 827-836. (Faculty of 1000, FFa10) (more ...)

Multiple small RNAs identified in Mycobacterium bovis BCG are also expressed in M. tuberculosis and M. smegmatis (2010), J. M. DiChiara, L. M. Contreras-Martinez, J. Livny, D. Smith, K. A. McDonough, M. Belfort., Nucleic Acids Res., 38, 4067-4078. (more ...)

Global regulators orchestrate group II intron retromobility (2009), C. J. Coros, C. L. Piazza, V. R. Chalamcharla, D. Smith, M. Belfort, Mol. Cell, 34, 250-256 (Faculty of 1000, FFa8) (more ...)


Lab Members with RNA-related projects

Dorie Smith (Lab Manager)

Ingrid Hahn (Ph.D. student)

Carol Lyn Piazza (senior lab tech)