Mohammad Alinoor Rahman, PhD, MS

Research Program: Cancer Biology Faculty Rank: Assistant Professor Campus: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College: College of Medicine Department: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Cancer Research Interest

• Disease Site Focus: Hematologic Malignancies, Leukemia/ Lymphoma, Breast, Melanoma
• Research Focus Area: Carcinogenesis, Treatment, Informatics
• Type of Research: Basic, Translational
• Research Interest Statement: RNA processing misregulation has been highlighted as a critical driver of tumorigenesis through emerging discoveries in the past decade. Alternative splicing (AS) and nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) are two important RNA processing mechanisms in controlling gene expression, and their misregulation often leads to malignancy. Although therapeutic approaches to modulate AS/NMD in several genetic diseases are reaching the clinic, this is an under-explored area in cancer. My research is focused on bridging the gap between RNA biology and cancer research. My work distinguishes itself by the systematic use of diseaserelevant model systems to elucidate the mechanisms of RNA processing defects in cancer. Recent efforts to profile AS/NMD in human tumors have revealed that many of the changes in AS/NMD are cell-typespecific. Therefore, studies investigating the underlying mechanisms in disease-relevant model systems will provide invaluable insights into the role of RNA biology in cancer, elucidate pathological phenomena, and aid in developing novel therapeutic strategies. My recent works (Rahman et al., Genes Dev 2020; Rahman et al., Cell 2020; Yoshimi et al., Nature 2019) identified a critical link between AS-coupled-NMD (ASNMD) and hematologic malignancies. My current research explores the molecular basis of aberrant regulation in targeted AS-NMD genes in myelodysplastic syndromes and leukemia and the development of targeted tools (such as antisense therapy) to modulate aberrant AS-NMD as a therapeutic approach. I am also interested in exploring the role of AS-NMD in the pathogenesis of different solid tumors, including melanoma and breast tumors. My research will broaden the basic understanding of AS and NMD regulation in the post-transcriptional RNA processing pathway in normal physiology and aberrant regulation in cancer. In addition, identifying oncogenic targets should lead to the discovery of novel cancer biomarkers and aid in developing targeted cancer therapies.

Contact Information

• Email Address: MARAHMAN@UAMS.EDU
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Active Grants

• NIH/Nat. Inst. of General Medical Sciences – 1R35GM154991
  “Decoding Mechanisms of Nonsense-mediated mRNA Decay through Alternative Splicing”
  Principal Investigator
  7/8/2024 – 4/30/2029
• Arkansas Breast Cancer Research Program – AWD00055850
  “Manipulating RNA Splicing as a Targeted Therapeutic Approach in Breast Cancer”
  Principal Investigator
  9/1/2023 – 8/31/2025

Recent Publications

• Nasrin F, Nagar P, Islam MR, [et al., including Rahman MA]. SRSF6 and SRSF1 coordinately enhance the inclusion of human MUSK exon 10 to generate a Wnt-sensitive MuSK isoform. NAR molecular medicine. 2025 2(2):ugaf007. PMID: 40161265. PMCID: PMC11954543.
• Islam MR, Nagar P, Neetole ST, [et al., including Rahman MA]. RNA Splicing in Cancer and Targeted Therapies. Genes. 2023 14(11). PMID: 38002963. PMCID: PMC10671003.
• Farshadyeganeh P, Nazim M, Zhang R, [et al., including Rahman MA]. Splicing regulation of GFPT1 muscle-specific isoform and its roles in glucose metabolisms and neuromuscular junction. iScience. 2023 26(10):107746. PMID: 37744035. PMCID: PMC10514471.
• Wan L, Lin KT, Rahman MA, [et al.]. Splicing Factor SRSF1 Promotes Pancreatitis and KRASG12D-Mediated Pancreatic Cancer. Cancer discovery. 2023 13(7):1678-1695. PMID: 37098965. PMCID: PMC10330071.
• Nagar P, Islam MR, Rahman MA. Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay as a Mediator of Tumorigenesis. Genes. 2023 14(2). PMID: 36833284. PMCID: PMC9956241.
• Gao Y, Lin KT, Jiang T, [et al., including Rahman MA]. Systematic characterization of short intronic splicing-regulatory elements in SMN2 pre-mRNA. Nucleic acids research. 2022. PMID: 35018432. PMCID: PMC8789036.