Regulation of programmed stop codon readthrough

My research lies within the Life Sciences, and is specialized around questions related to developmental biology, and how gene expression is regulated in normal and diseased contexts. During the last years my research has dealt with several new concepts in gene regulation, such as alternative decoding of the genome, more specifically in a process called programmed stop codon readthrough. This deals with how cells can alter their protein synthesis (translation) by means that have not previosly been known. The research is primarily fundamental/basic research, but may have far-reaching applications for treatment of human genetic diseases including cancer, something that my research group is exploring to some degree. The work is to a large extent experimental and we use the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism to gain understanding of these biological processes in living cells and tissues.