Michael Blower, PhD

Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Mike Blower is a Professor of Cell Biology and Biochemistry at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine at Boston University.

Mike received his B.A. from Miami University (Ohio), his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego under the mentorship of Gary Karpen. He was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley with Rebecca Heald and Karsten Weis. Following his postdoctoral training he was an Assistant and Associate Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School while managing a research lab in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is the recipient of a Burroughs-Wellcome Fund career Award in the Biomedical Sciences and many different grants from the NIH.

Mike’s current work focuses on the interaction of RNA with chromatin and how these interactions influence chromatin structure and gene expression. Additionally his lab studies the regulation of chromatin:RNA interactions throughout the cell cycle. His lab uses a multidisciplinary approach that integrates, cell biology, in vitro reconstitution, genomics and bioinformatics, and CRISPR genome engineering.

Publications

  • Published 6/30/2026

    Sharp JA, Thomas R, Sparago E, Alimenti K, Wang W, Blower MD. The SAF-A/HNRNPU ATPase and RGG domains are important for XIST RNA localization, nuclear dynamics, RNA splicing, and cell proliferation. Mol Biol Cell. 2026 Jul; 37(7):br22. PMID: 42234592.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 6/2/2026

    Ahsan FM, Rotti JF, Yerevanian AI, Emans SW, Stuhr NL, Aceves-Salvador JA, Wang W, Baker DJ, Pouli D, Skinner OS, Blower MD, Soukas AA. Reductive death is averted by a conserved de novo lipogenic switch. Mol Cell. 2026 Jul 02; 86(13):2539-2559.e13. PMID: 42229415.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 5/5/2026

    Aldrich A, Thomas R, Blower M, Lyons SM. Diverse stresses differentially regulate rRNA biogenesis and mRNA translation. Nucleic Acids Res. 2026 May 05; 54(9). PMID: 42152679.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/7/2026

    Johnston R, Brekker MA, Khalil N, Goldstein ME, Aldrich A, Grimins AO, Gritli S, Marintchev A, Blower MD, Saeed M, Lyons SM. Proteolytic dissection of eIF4G reveals the closed-loop mRNP as an architecture for translation repression. bioRxiv. 2026 Apr 07. PMID: 41993452.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/14/2026

    Sparago E, Johnston R, Lyons SM, Blower MD. Decreased tRNA abundance contributes to decreased translation elongation rate in a prolonged mitosis. bioRxiv. 2026 Jan 14. PMID: 41648386.

    Read at: PubMed

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Websites

Education

  • University of California, San Diego, PhD
  • Miami University, BA

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