Profile
Lela Lackey
Genetics and Biochemistry
Assistant Professor
864-889-0532
Self Regional Hall (Greenwood Genetic Center) 128 [Lab]
Self Regional Hall (Greenwood Genetic Center) 128B [Lab]
Self Regional Hall (Greenwood Genetic Center) 129 [Office]
Self Regional Hall (Greenwood Genetic Center) 136 [Lab]
Educational Background
Ph.D., Molecular Biology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2012
B.A., Chemistry, North Carolina State University, 2005
B.S., Biochemistry, North Carolina State University, 2005
Profile/About Me
I am an RNA biologist trained in RNA structure analysis. I am highly interested in how RNA structure helps regulate mRNA processing. I completed my B.S. and B.A. in Biochemistry and Chemistry at North Carolina State University in 2005. While at North Carolina State, I researched small nucleolar RNAs in Dr. E.S. Maxwell’s laboratory. After graduating, I joined Peace Corps South Africa and served as an Education Volunteer for three rural primary schools for two years. Upon returning to the USA, I attended graduate school at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where I studied the APOBEC/AID family of cytosine deaminases and their role in viral restriction, cancer development and antibody maturation in Dr. Reuben Harris’s laboratory. I earned my Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the U of M in 2012. As a postdoctoral fellow, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Alain Laederach at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where I learned experimental and computational methods for RNA structure modeling. I joined the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry faculty at Clemson University in 2020. My laboratory is housed at the Institute for Human Genetics in Greenwood, SC.
Research Interests
RNA is a foundational molecule of molecular and cellular biology. RNA is predisposed to form flexible structures that impact its regulation. My laboratory studies RNA structure and structural impacts on gene expression. For example, in alternative splicing a precursor mRNA has the potential to be spliced into multiple different mature mRNAs by recognizing alternative splice sites around the coding exons and removing different sections of introns. Structured RNA around the splice site can influence splice site recognition. In addition, genetic variants frequently often occur in non-coding regions. Identifying genetics variants that can alter the natural form and sequence of regulatory elements within RNA is important for understanding splicing and how mis-splicing can contribute to disease. We have several projects analyzing RNA structure in precursor RNAs, both within introns as well as around splice junctions. Our research incorporates traditional wet-lab experiments, computational structure modeling and bioinformatics. In addition to splicing, we are also interested in how RNA regulatory elements, both structural and sequence-based, play a role in alternative polyadenylation and translational efficiency.
Courses Taught
Advanced Molecular Biology (BCHM/GEN 8110)
Selected Publications
1. Herbert A, Hatfield A, Randazza A, Miyamoto V, Palmer K, Lackey L*. Precursor RNA structural patterns at SF3B1 mutation sensitive cryptic 3' splice sites. RNA Biology. 2025 Dec. 22(1), 1–15.
2. Jiamutai F, Hatfield A, Herbert A, Majumdar D, Shankar V, Lackey L*. Altered polyadenylation site usage in SERPINA1 3’UTR in response to cellular stress affects A1AT protein expression. Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 2;15(1):23510.
3. Herbert A, Hatfield A, Lackey L*. How does precursor RNA structure influence RNA processing and gene expression?. Biosci Rep. 2023 Mar 31;43(3).
4. Grayeski PJ, Weidmann CA, Kumar J, Lackey L, Mustoe AM, Busan S, Laederach A, Weeks KM. Global 5'-UTR RNA structure regulates translation of a SERPINA1 mRNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 2022 Sep 23;50(17):9689-9704.
5. Kumar J, Lackey L, Waldern JM, Dey A, Mustoe AM, Weeks KM, Mathews DH, Laederach A. Quantitative prediction of variant effects on alternative splicing in MAPT using endogenous pre-messenger RNA structure probing. Elife. 2022 Jun 13;11.
6. Lackey L*, Coria A, Ghosh AJ, Grayeski P, Hatfield A, Shankar V, Platig J, Xu Z, Ramos SBV, Silverman EK, Ortega VE, Cho MH, Hersh CP, Hobbs BD, Castaldi P, Laederach A*. Alternative poly-adenylation modulates a1-antitrypsin expression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. PLoS Genet. 2021 Nov;17(11):e1009912.
*corresponding author
A complete bibliography is available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/lela.lackey.1/bibliography/public/
