Prof. Petra Beli, University of Mainz

Cellular stress responses are essential for maintaining the integrity of the genome and the proteome, enabling cells to detect, signal, and repair molecular damage. Notably, cellular metabolism itself can be a source of stress, generating reactive chemical species that damage nucleic acids and proteins.By capturing changes in protein abundance and posttranslational modification states, we aim to dissect how different regulatory layers orchestrate damage recognition, signal propagation, and downstream repair mechanisms. I will present our recent efforts in understanding the cellular responses to DNA and RNA damage that pose a threat to gene expression by inhibiting transcription and translation, respectively. In particular, RNA damage responses remain poorly understood and may act as endogenous triggers of ribosome stalling and inflammatory pathways that contribute to metabolic diseases.