Alberto Kornblihtt

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a hereditary degenerative disease of the central nervous system resulting from a spinal motor neuron (SMN) protein shortage. This is due to the deletion or mutation of Survival of Motor Neuron 1 (SMN1). Due to the faulty SMN1 gene, SMA patients do not have enough SMN protein. SMA patients must depend on Survivor of Motor Neurons 2 (SMN2), a gene that all humans have. SMN2 cannot produce sufficient full-length protein for the motor neurons to signal muscles due to sequence differences and the exclusion of exon 7, resulting in the overall SMN protein deficiency. As a treatment strategy for SMA, the first FDA-approved drug, known as Spinraza was developed by Dr. Adrian Krainer and his Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory colleagues. Spinraza is an oligonucleotide that works to activate SMN2 to make more SMN protein in SMA patients. In 2015, the families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy patients encouraged Kornblihtt and Krainer to work together to improve the effectiveness of Spinraza or to develop alternative therapies to be used in conjunction with Spinraza. Kornblihtt’s research team focuses on epigenetic strategies, a different mechanism than used Spinraza, to increase SMN protein from the SMN2 gene. Epigenetics studies changes in gene expression, without alteration to the DNA sequence. In 2017 and 2019, Kornblihtt received two separate grants from CURE SMA and FAME (Families of SMA, Argentina) to support continued work on his projects “Epigenetics in SMN2 E7 Alternative Splicing” and “Epigenetics in SMN2 E7 Alternative Splicing II”. In these projects, Kornblihtt’s team has worked on the regulation of alternative pre-mRNA splicing to develop new mechanisms for SMN protein development, using a single gene to generate multiple proteins. Kornblihtt’s lab continues to work on the SMN2 gene for SMA therapy that focus specifically on exon 7 inclusion to work in conjunction with oligonucleotide treatments, such as Spinraza.

Kornblihtt’s lab focuses on the mechanisms that couple transcription with alternative splicing for the regulation of alternative pre-mRNA splicing. Transcription is the process in which a genetic sequence of a gene is transcribed, or changed, from DNA into RNA, to allow for protein production. One of the most significant accomplishments in Kornblihtt’s research came in 1997. Kornblihtt’s research team was able to an alternative splicing assay combined with promoter swapping to demonstrate that transcription parameters affect the outcome of splicing They later determined that the coupling of transcription and splicing is dependent upon transcriptional elongation speed, or kinetic coupling, and the impact of transcribing RNA polymerase II on splicing. Kornblihtt’s research has found that elongation affects alternative splicing events, with slow elongation increasing inclusion of approximately 80% of exons and skipping of approximately 20% in mammalian cells.

After completing his postdoctoral research in Oxford, Kornblihtt returned to Argentina in 1984 and accepted a position as a Plenary Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales at the University of Buenos Aires. Kornblihtt is also a Senior CONICET Investigator and works with a research team to study the regulation of alternative ribonucleic acids splicing. Alternative splicing occurs during gene expression, allowing exons from a gene to be excluded or included, resulting in a single gene generating multiple proteins. Major projects in Kornblihtt’s lab focus on: 1) Coupling transcription with alternative splicing; 2) Alternative splicing and Chromatin; 3) Alternative splicing and spinal muscular atrophy; 4) Ultraviolet light irradiation and alternative splicing; and 5) Alternative splicing in plants.

Alberto Kornblihtt (born June 30, 1954) is an Argentine molecular biologist who specializes in alternative ribonucleic acids splicing. Kornblihtt is credited with being among the first to document how a single transcribed gene can generate multiple protein variants. Kornblihtt was elected as a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States in 2011 and received the Diamond Award for the most relevant scientist of Argentina of the decade, alongside physicist Juan Martin Maldacena, in 2013.

Alberto Kornblihtt was born on June 30, 1954, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His parents taught Mathematics and Geography, providing Kornblihtt and his two siblings, who also pursued careers in science and education, with an environment for knowledge and learning at an early age. When he was 16 years old, Kornblihtt enrolled in a high school botany and biology class instructed by Rosa Guaglianone, allowing Kornblihtt the opportunity to perform laboratory and microscopy work. This experience launched Kornblihtt’s interest in DNA and mRNA. Following high school, Kornblihtt continued his education at the School of Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, earning a Biology degree in 1977. In 1980, Kornblihtt went on to earn his PhD in Biochemistry from Campomar Foundation in Buenos Aires, under the mentorship of Héctor Torres. Kornblihtt then relocated to Oxford, where he held a postdoctoral position from 1981 through 1984 at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. Kornblihtt worked with Professor Francisco Barralle during his postdoctoral research, and together, they were successful in cloning the human fibronectin gene. They determined that fibronectin, an important glycoprotein for cell adhesion and tissue repair, was alternatively spliced and could result in the generation of ten or more polypeptides.