Linking RNA to Human Health and Disease
Speaker: John Rinn , Broad Institute, Harvard, Whitehead
Date: May 7 2012
Time: 11:30AM to 1:00PM
Host: Bonnie Berger, MIT
Contact: Patrice Macaluso, 617.253.3037, macaluso@csail.mit.edu
In the 50 years since RNA was identified as a central component in the flow of genetic information, it has become increasingly clear that RNA is more than a mere messenger and instead performs vast and diverse functions. Numerous studies have revealed that the mammalian genome is pervasively transcribed, giving rise to many thousands of non-coding transcripts including a class of long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs). Raising the question of what do lincRNAs do?
To address this question we have developed a ‘guilt by association’ to ‘predict’ lincRNA functions leading to hypothesis driven experimentation. Our guilt by association method pointed to a clear connection of lincRNAs and numerous cellular pathways ranging from pluripotency, cancer, adipogenesis to parasitology. Experimental perturbation experiments have unraveled a myriad of functional roles for lincRNAs in these pathways. Together, these results point to key regulatory roles for lincRNAs across diverse biological pathways and diseases, with a common theme of interfacing with and modulating protein regulatory complexes.
Moran Cabili, Lei Sun, Cole Trapnell, Loyal Goff1, Harvey Lodish, and John L. Rinn.
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