Position Title
Professor In-Residence of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
Dr. Flora Tassone, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, a MIND Institute Investigator at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, and the Director of the National Fragile X Foundation Collaborative Biomarker Research Program (NFXF CBR Program-Biobank), which is hosted in her, CLIA certified laboratory, and funded by the National Fragile Foundation. Her expertise is in transcriptional and translational regulation, and in particular of the fragile X (FMR1) gene. Dr. Tassone has made several important observations related to the mechanism of gene expression of the FMR1 gene, especially regarding the effects of premutation alleles on individuals (premutation carriers) the scientific community thought to be clinically unaffected. Specifically, she investigated the clinical manifestations, protein and FMR1 mRNA expression in individuals with fragile X syndrome and made the important discovery of gene dysregulation (increased mRNA activity) among premutation carriers. This discovery provided the molecular basis for the forms of clinical involvement among carriers, including fragile X associated tremor ataxia syndrome (FXTAS), which was described in 2001 by her team. Since then, she has had a long-standing focus on the molecular mechanisms related to the FMR1-associated disorders.