The people behind the papers – Hannah Brown and Sean Ryder

MEX-3 is a conserved RNA-binding protein that is required for oocyte maturation and anterior cell fate specification during early embryogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans. In their work, Sean Ryder and colleagues show that the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of mex-3 is essential for oocyte maturation and embryonic morphogenesis in worms under thermal stress. To find out more about their work, we spoke to the first author, Hannah Brown, and the corresponding author, Sean Ryder, Professor and Vice Chair for Outreach, Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, USA.