Niroshika Keppetipola, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Office: MH-501C, Lab: DBH-141

Email: nkeppetipola@fullerton.edu

Dr. Keppetipola received her B.S. Chemistry degree from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She conducted her PhD studies at the Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Chemical Biology, New York (Sloan Kettering-Rockefeller-Cornell). Dr. Keppetipola carried out post-doctoral studies in mechanisms of alternative pre-mRNA splicing at the University of California, Los Angeles. Currently, in her own lab, Dr. Keppetipola investigates how post-translational modifications alter the function of RNA binding proteins and in turn, alternative pre-mRNA splicing patterns.

Research Interests

The Keppetipola research group uses a combination of biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology approaches to identify chemical modifications in RNA binding proteins and to investigate how they regulate alternative splicing patterns. Please email nkeppetipola@fullerton.edu if you are interested in joining the lab. We are always looking for motivated students interested in working in the field of RNA-protein biology.

Fun Facts

I enjoy cooking, hiking and spending time with my family.

Publications

Pina JM^#, Hernandez LA*, Keppetipola N (2022) “Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Proteins PTBP1 and PTBP2 Interact with Distinct Proteins Under Splicing Conditions” PLoS One. 3;17(2):e0263287. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263287

Ontiveros RJ*, Hernandez L*, Nguyen H*,  Hernandez Lopez AL, Shankar A*, Kim E*, Keppetipola N (2020)“Identification and Characterization of a Minimal Functional Splicing Regulatory Protein, PTBP1” Biochemistry doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.0c00664

Pina J ^# , Reynaga JM*, Truong A*, and Keppetipola N (2018) “Post-translational modifications in Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Proteins PTBP1 and PTBP2” Biochemistry Jul 3;57(26):3873-3882

Keppetipola NM, Yeom KH, Hernandez AL, Bui T*, Sharma S, Black DL (2016) “Multiple determinants of splicing repression activity in the polypyrimidine tract binding proteins, PTBP1 and PTBP2. RNA 22(8):1172-80

Keppetipola N, Sharma S, Li Q, and Black DL. (2012) “Neuronal regulation of Pre-mRNA Splicing by Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Proteins, PTBP1 and PTBP2” Crit Rev Biochem Mol Biol. 47(4):360-78.