Richard Maraia became interested in tRNA expression in 1979 as an undergraduate in the Laboratory of John Harding in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University in New York City. While in Medical school at Cornell University Medical College, also in NYC, he worked on liver-specific gene expression under the guidance of Gretchen Darlington, a somatic cell geneticist, and later on the Alu-like transcripts synthesized by RNA polymerase III, with Mike Zasloff at the NIH. A wonderful Chairman at The New York Hospital, Dr. Maria New, afforded him the opportunity to return to Zasloff's lab periodically during Pediatrics training. After completing Pediatrics residency training at the New York Hospital, he officially joined Zasloff's Lab in the Intramural Research Program (IRP) of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and continued to study the biology of Alu RNA. During this time Dr. Maraia was appointed as a Clinical Research Fellow, became a Board-certified Pediatrician and began training in Medical Genetics. In 1990, Dr. Maraia was invited to join, as a young Investigator, the newly forming Laboratory of Molecular Growth Regulation, to be headed by Bruce H. Howard, where he enjoyed a creative period of studying pol III transcription termination and Alu RNA processing. He was awarded tenure by the NIH Central Tenure Committee in 1998. Dr. Maraia remains in the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development where he is a Senior Investigator and Chief of the Section on Molecular and Cell Biology.
The Maraia Lab group investigates the molecular mechanisms and regulation involved in RNA expression in eukaryotes. This includes RNA synthesis by RNA polymerase III, which serves as a model system of eukaryotic transcription, as well as the post-transcriptional phase of RNA processing and transcript maturation. The goal is to understand the mechanisms involved in these processes, their regulation, and how they impact upon cell growth in normal and pathological states of cellular proliferation. The fission yeast, S. pombe is used as a model genetic system along with mammalian tissue culture, gene-altered mice, molecular biology and biochemistry. The current focus on transcription is on initiation and termination. The human La antigen and other key factors are central points of interest. La is a nuclear phosphoprotein found in all eukaryotic cells, that binds to the termination region of nascent RNA polymerase III transcripts, directing these RNAs through processing pathways. There are also investigations of the expression of mobile Alu retroposons. These enigmatic genetic elements, which number nearly one million copies in human DNA, use pol III and other factors to promote their own proliferation within our genomes.

http://eclipse.nichd.nih.gov/nichd/Maraia/Maraialabpage.html