Dr Volker Patzel

Research Interest

RNA Technologies

Research of this group is focused on experimental and computational design of ribonucleic acids (RNA) for enhancement (processing, nuclear export, translatability of RNA), inhibition (antisense, RNAi) or repair (spliceosome-mediated RNA trans-splicing, CRISPR/Cas-triggered RNA-guided genome editing) of gene expression towards diagnosis and treatment of human diseases. The targets are human pathogens including HIV-1 and HPV-16 as well as cellular genes involved in inflammation, cancer, and hereditary diseases. One goal is the construction of a modular platform for in silico design and in vitro synthesis of functional RNA molecules or their encoding genes. A second goal is the development of optimised molecules prepared for diagnosis or further pre-clinical and clinical investigation.

Delivery

Delivery represents a major hurdle of in vivo applications of nucleic acids. We develop novel gene delivery strategies which are based either on dumbbell-shaped DNA minimal vectors, on cell-penetrating peptides or on micrometre scale polymer capsules which can be internalised by human cells to release small non-coding RNA or function as intracellular bioreactor. In the long-term we plan to use in vitro / in vivo-selected carrier systems to deliver in silico-optimised RNAs into human target cells including stem cells for gene therapy, cancer therapy or genetic vaccination. Our recent work at NUS has led to several inventions and two patent applications.

Current Projects

The team collaborates with research groups at the University of Cambridge, NUS, and A*STAR. The group has a strong interest in transferring intellectual property form research to application. Projects include:

1. miRNA::target interaction
2. Design of trans-splicing RNA
3. Design of genes and vectors for preclinical and clinical investigation
4. Delivery of nucleic acids into target cells including stem cells
5. Novel approaches for genetic intervention
6. Identification and characterization of non-coding RNA

Recent Publications

1. Yu H, Jiang X, Hang L, Tan KT, Patzel V (2015) Efficient production of superior dumbbell-shaped DNA minimal vectors for small hairpin RNA expression. Nucleic Acids Research, 43(18): e120.
2. Patzel V (2015) Implementation of a technology-supported three-stage classroom feedback system for promotion of self-regulation and assessment of student and teacher performance. American Journal of Educational Research, 3: 446-449.
3. Tan KS, Choi H, Jiang X, Yin L, Seet JE, Patzel V, Engelward BP, Chow VT (2014) Micro-RNAs in a regenerating lung: An integrative systems biology analysis of murine influenza pneumonia. BMC Genomics, 15: 587.
4. Poddar S, Eul J, Patzel V (2014) Homologous SV40 RNA trans-splicing: special case or prime example of viral RNA trans-splicing? Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, 10(16): 51-57.
5. Patzel V (2014) The role of guide RNA structure in RNA interference. Journal of Microbiology & Experimentation, 1: 1-2.
6. Jung U, Jiang X, Kaufmann She, Patzel V (2013) A universal stem-loop primer-based TaqMan RT-PCR protocol for cost efficient detection of small non-coding RNA. RNA, 19(12): 1864-73.
7. Eul J, Patzel V (2013) Homologous SV40 RNA trans-splicing: a new mechanism for diversification of viral genotypes and phenotypes. RNA Biology, 10(11): 1689-99.
8. Köberle C, Kaufmann SH, Patzel V (2006) Selecting effective siRNAs based on guide RNA structure. Nature Protocols, 1(4): 1832-39.
9. Patzel V, Rutz S, Dietrich I, Köberle C, Scheffold A, Kaufmann SH (2005) Design of siRNAs producing unstructured guide-RNAs results in improved RNA interference efficiency. Nature Biotechnology, 23(11): 1440-44.
10. Patzel V, Sczakiel G (1998) Theoretical design of antisense RNA structures substantially improves annealing kinetics and efficacy in human cells. Nature Biotechnology, 16(1): 64-68

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