Biochemistry Professor Aaron Hoskins has been selected as a 2021-2022 Vilas Associate, awarded by the Office of Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education. The Vilas Associates award recognizes new and ongoing research of the highest quality and significance.
Hoskins’s research focuses on RNA splicing, a biological process requiring assembly of large RNA-protein complexes, or spliceosomes, from dozens of individual components. RNA splicing is fundamental and essential to gene expression in all eukaryotes, from plants to humans.
As Vilas Associate, Hoskins’s research will focus on bringing new technologies to the UW-Madison campus that allow for high-precision biochemical studies of nucleic acid interactions to be carried out simultaneously across tens of thousands of sequence variants.
“Our work will transform studies of human gene expression,” said Hoskins, “by providing the biochemical and mechanistic foundations for alternative splicing that are currently absent in the field.”
Recipients of the Vilas Associates award receive summer research salary support and flexible research funds over the two years of the award. Winners are chosen competitively by the Divisional Research Committees of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education.