“Widespread 3’UTR splicing promotes oncogene expression and tumorigenesis”
Major research interests: In addition to genomic alterations, aberrant changes in post-transcriptional regulation by factors including RNA binding proteins and non-coding RNAs represent another mechanism to modify gene function and thus contribute to tumorigenesis. In addition to studying non-coding RNAs in their own right, our group is also interested in studying the non-coding regions of protein-coding mRNAs (untranslated regions, UTRs). Our work has three main focus areas: (1) Deconvoluting RNA:RNA networks in cancer; (2) Understanding the interplay between RNA:RNA interactions and RNA:protein interactions and (3) Examining potential crosstalk between these post-transcriptional networks and RNA processing pathways such as alternative splicing and polyadenylation. Our long-term goal is to translate our basic research discoveries into new avenues for the development of novel RNA-based anti-cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.
