MIT Associate Professor Eliezer Calo’s work on craniofacial malformations has led to new insights into how ribosomes form and how they control protein synthesis.

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MIT News

MIT Associate Professor Eliezer Calo studies craniofacial malformations to uncover fundamental biological processes. His lab investigates how defects in ribosome production lead to disorders like Treacher-Collins Syndrome, finding that mutations in genes like TCOF1 cause p53 overactivation in facial embryonic cells, triggering programmed cell death. His research also revealed how TCOF1 is critical for forming the three-compartment nucleolus, shedding light on an evolutionary transition that occurred ~300 million years ago in reptiles, birds, and mammals. Calo's career path took him from Puerto Rico through MIT's Summer Research Program to a Stanford postdoc before returning to MIT faculty in 2017.

Studying the genetic basis of disease to explore fundamental biological questions