About Us

Copeland Lab Mission

Since 2002 our lab has studied many aspects of the essential trace element selenium with an emphasis on the molecular mechanisms that make incorporating this element into protein possible.

Selenium is incorporated as the “21st” amino acid, selenocysteine (Sec).  The selenocysteine tRNA recognizes the stop codon UGA, so we are pursuing a fundamental question: How does the cell differentiate between Stop codons and Sec codons?  The answers are found in an evolutionarily distinct set of protein factors that exist solely to change the coding potential of UGA in eukaryotes.  Our job is to figure out how they work and how they are regulated.