Dr. Timothy W. Nilsen is Professor and Director of the Center for RNA Molecular Biology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. A long term research interest has been the mechanism of pre-mRNA splicing, with particular emphasis on the process of splice site recognition in higher eukaryotes and trans-splicing, an unusual splicing reaction that occurs in certain lower eukaryotes. More recently, studies have been initiated on the mechanism whereby mircoRNAs inhibit protein production from targeted mRNAs. He holds a Ph.D. from SUNY Albany and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal, RNA.