Ankur Jain

Ankur Jain

Associate Professor of Biology; Core Member, Whitehead Institute

Ankur Jain investigates the role of RNA self-assembly in cellular organization and neurodegenerative disease.

617-452-3563

Phone

WI-561C

Office

ajain@wi.mit.edu

Email

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

Location

Lab Website
Beverly Dobson

Assistant

617-258-5214

Assistant Phone

Education

  • PhD, 2013, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • BTech, 2007,  Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Research Summary

We study how biomolecules in a cell self-organize. In particular, we are interested in understanding how membrane-free cellular compartments such as RNA granules form and function. Our lab develops new biochemical and biophysical techniques to investigate these compartments and to understand their dysfunction in human disease.

Awards

  • Young Alumni Achiever's Award, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, 2019
  • NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, 2017
  • Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, 2022

Key Publications

  1. RNA phase transitions in repeat expansion disorders. Jain, A, Vale, RD. 2017. Nature 546, 243-247.
    doi: 10.1038/nature22386PMID:28562589
  2. Stoichiometry and assembly of mTOR complexes revealed by single-molecule pulldown. Jain, A, Arauz, E, Aggarwal, V, Ikon, N, Chen, J, Ha, T. 2014. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111, 17833-8.
    doi: 10.1073/pnas.1419425111PMID:25453101
  3. Probing cellular protein complexes using single-molecule pull-down. Jain, A, Liu, R, Ramani, B, Arauz, E, Ishitsuka, Y, Ragunathan, K, Park, J, Chen, J, Xiang, YK, Ha, T et al.. 2011. Nature 473, 484-8.
    doi: 10.1038/nature10016PMID:21614075

Recent Publications

  1. Whi3key old fashioned: a condensate cocktail for cell fate decisions. Schmitz, CO, Jain, A. 2026. Trends Cell Biol , .
    doi: 10.1016/j.tcb.2026.03.005PMID:41916826
  2. When RNA goes off script: ensuring transcript fidelity in transgene expression. Anderson, R, Ausler, C, Jain, A. 2026. EMBO J , .
    doi: 10.1038/s44318-026-00733-zPMID:41840058
  3. Blocking RAN translation without altering repeat RNAs rescues C9ORF72-related ALS and FTD phenotypes. Jiang, X, Schaeffer, L, Patni, D, Russo, T, Lee, CZ, Aguilar, C, Marques, C, Jansen-West, K, Hruska-Plochan, M, Ray-Soni, A et al.. 2026. Science 391, eadv2600.
    doi: 10.1126/science.adv2600PMID:41643021
  4. A distal promoter and aberrant splicing enable canonical translation of out-of-frame proteins in Huntington's disease. Anderson, R, Soni, T, Jain, A. 2025. bioRxiv , .
    doi: 10.1101/2025.10.20.683480PMID:41279265
  5. Sequence-encoded interactions program internal condensate architecture. Majumder, S, Akram, A, Ning, A, Schmit, J, Jain, A. 2025. bioRxiv , .
    doi: 10.1101/2025.10.02.680069PMID:41256623
  6. Polyamine homeostasis in vivo relies primarily on transport. Chang, C, Jain, A. 2025. bioRxiv , .
    doi: 10.1101/2025.10.02.680054PMID:41256492
  7. Transcriptome-wide analysis reveals sequence selection to avoid mRNA aggregation in E. coli. Todisco, M, Jain, A. 2025. bioRxiv , .
    doi: 10.1101/2025.09.19.677370PMID:41000932
  8. Current practices in the study of biomolecular condensates: a community comment. Alberti, S, Arosio, P, Best, RB, Boeynaems, S, Cai, D, Collepardo-Guevara, R, Dignon, GL, Dimova, R, Elbaum-Garfinkle, S, Fawzi, NL et al.. 2025. Nat Commun 16, 7730.
    doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-62055-8PMID:40830340
  9. Polyamines buffer labile iron to suppress ferroptosis. Sharma, P, Keys, HR, Müller, S, Pires, IS, Mansell, R, Imada, S, Kunchok, T, Waite, M, Ausler, C, Yuan, B et al.. 2025. bioRxiv , .
    doi: 10.1101/2025.06.30.662349PMID:40631118
  10. Transcriptome-wide RNA accessibility mapping reveals structured RNA elements and pervasive conformational rearrangements under stress. Farenhem, K, Whitfield, TW, Chouloute, A, Jain, A. 2025. bioRxiv , .
    doi: 10.1101/2025.06.05.658101PMID:40502122

Multimedia

 

Photo courtesy of Ankur Jain