WANT A PROFILE LIKE THIS?
Create my FREE Plan Or learn about other options
Walter Moss
PeerJ Author & Reviewer
435 Points

Contributions by role

Author 370
Preprint Author 35
Reviewer 30

Contributions by subject area

Bioinformatics
Molecular Biology
Virology
Computational Biology
Genomics
Microbiology
Biochemistry
Evolutionary Studies

Walter N Moss

PeerJ Author & Reviewer

Summary

I am particularly interested in RNA structures involved in pathogenic viral infections. As a graduate student in the Douglas Turner lab (University of Rochester), my work revealed that influenza virus transcripts contain widespread, conserved, and stable RNA structure. I identified global trends in stability that correlate to the species-specificity of the virus, which has implications in understanding how animal-to-human (pandemic-causing) transmissions can occur. My postdoctoral work in the Joan Steitz lab (Yale University) focused on Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). Using a combination of bioinformatics and high-throughput sequencing, I discovered that ~30% of the EBV genome is likely to generate RNAs with conserved and thermodynamically stable structures, implicating them as functional elements. This includes novel structured ncRNAs (the EBV stable intronic sequence RNAs [sisRNAs]) that are abundantly produced during a highly oncogenic type of latent infection. As an Assistant Professor at Iowa State University I have carried on my work on EBV and influenza regulatory and ncRNAs and expanded our search to other genomes significant to human health. My long-term goal is to establish methodological pipelines that facilitate the discovery of structural motifs with significance to human health and disease, using innovative in silico tools, biochemical and cell/molecular biological approaches.

Biochemistry Bioinformatics Genomics Microbiology Molecular Biology Virology

Past or current institution affiliations

Iowa State University

Work details

Assistant Professor

Iowa State University
The Roy J Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology

Websites

  • Moss Lab
  • LinkedIn

PeerJ Contributions

  • Articles 3
  • Preprints 1
November 8, 2022
ScanFold 2.0: a rapid approach for identifying potential structured RNA targets in genomes and transcriptomes
Ryan J. Andrews, Warren B. Rouse, Collin A. O’Leary, Nicholas J. Booher, Walter N. Moss
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14361 PubMed 36389431
September 10, 2020
A survey of RNA secondary structural propensity encoded within human herpesvirus genomes: global comparisons and local motifs
Ryan J. Andrews, Collin A. O’Leary, Walter N. Moss
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9882 PubMed 32974099
December 18, 2018
ScanFold: an approach for genome-wide discovery of local RNA structural elements—applications to Zika virus and HIV
Ryan J. Andrews, Julien Roche, Walter N. Moss
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6136 PubMed 30627482
August 9, 2018 - Version: 1
Genome-wide discovery of local RNA structural elements in Zika virus
Ryan J Andrews, Julien Roche, Walter N Moss
https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27101v1