Bryce Nickels PhD

Bryce Nickels is a Professor of Genetics at Rutgers University. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Harvard University and then remained at Harvard to carry out his post-doctoral studies in Ann Hochschild’s laboratory. His research focus is the study of transcription mechanism and transcription regulation in bacteria. His lab utilizes a range of approaches including molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry and high-throughput sequencing to obtain a detailed understanding of the mechanism and regulation of transcription.

Amoung his lab’s discoveries was that of a functional role for 2- to 4-nucleotide RNA products, “nanoRNAs,” in modulating gene expression and biofilm formation in bacteria by serving as primers for transcription initiation. More recently, his lab identified an “ab initio” mechanism of RNA 5'-end capping whereby a nucleoside-containing metabolite such as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is added at the RNA 5' end by serving as a “non-canonical initiating nucleotide” (NCIN) for transcription initiation by RNA polymerase.