Our research asks how the RNA polymerase II transcriptional machinery and RNA processing factors work together to achieve coordinated synthesis and maturation of messenger RNA (mRNA). The coupling of transcription and processing to make mRNA’s accurately and efficiently is essential to the health of all cells and is corrupted in many diseases. To make a fully functional mRNA requires synthesis of a primary transcript by RNA polymerase II and maturation of the transcript by capping the 5’ end, removal of introns by splicing and adding a poly A tail at the 3’ end. A mature mRNA is "gift-wrapped" with binding proteins that direct its export from nucleus to cytoplasm. A center-piece of the molecular machinery that couples synthesis with processing and export of mRNA’s is the C-terminal domain or CTD, a signature feature of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II. If this domain is removed, transcripts lose their identity as mRNA precursors. Many of the projects in our lab test the mRNA is made within a factory complex that comprises RNA polymerase II together with mRNA processing factors that bind to the CTD "landing pad".