Matthew S. Sachs

Matthew S. Sachs is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University, where he has been a faculty member since 2007. He is actively funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), and has held leadership roles in scientific consortia such as the Fungal Genome Initiative and the Gordon Research Conferences.

Education:

• A.B. in Biochemistry, Cornell University (1979)
• Ph.D. in Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1986)
• Postdoctoral research at Stanford University
• Previous faculty appointment at Oregon Health and Science University

Research Interests:

His laboratory focuses on understanding how upstream open reading frames (uORFs) and nascent peptides control gene expression. A key model is the arginine attenuator peptide (AAP), which regulates fungal arginine biosynthesis by stalling ribosomes in response to arginine levels. This mechanism is studied in vivo in Neurospora crassa and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and in vitro across multiple organisms. He also investigates how AAP-mediated stalling links to nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) and explores conserved uORFs in fungi like Cryptococcus neoformans and Aspergillus species.

Additionally, his lab contributes to functional genomics by curating the Neurospora crassa genome data at the Broad Institute and developing tools like Textpresso for literature mining in filamentous fungi. They also generate full-length cDNA libraries to improve genome annotation in intron-rich organisms.

Publications:

His recent work spans structural biology of ribosome arrest, antifungal drug mechanisms, circadian control of translation, and translational regulation via uORFs. These studies highlight his expertise in molecular mechanisms of gene regulation, fungal biology, and genomic resource development.

Service & Leadership:

• Chair, Fungal Policy Committee (2001–2003)
• Co-Chair, Cellular and Molecular Mycology Gordon Conference (2002)
• Steering Committee, Fungal Genome Initiative
• Editorial boards: Eukaryotic Cell, Fungal Genetics and Biology, Genetics

Laboratory:

He leads a research group in Room 215, Biological Sciences Building West, Texas A&M University. The lab is responsible for scientific curation of the Neurospora crassa genome and collaborates with institutions like the Broad Institute and Caltech.