ASBMB Today Careers Disease discoveries in three realms of the RNA world

Annual Meeting

Disease discoveries in three realms
of the RNA world

RNA and disease: 2020 annual meeting track

By Anita Hopper and Takahiro Ito

Sept. 1, 2019

The RNA world is key to understanding gene expression in eukaryotes. This track will include three sessions describing exciting discoveries in RNA and disease: small noncoding RNAs, RNA modifications and RNA binding proteins.

The session on small noncoding RNAs will focus on discoveries in model systems and humans regarding transfer RNAs, tRNA fragments and Piwi-interacting RNAs regarding their biogenesis, functions, and roles in development and disease.

After transcription, nearly every type of RNA becomes decorated with nucleoside modifications; the RNA modification session will describe novel roles these modifications play in decoding, RNA stability and RNA regulation and activities. It also will describe how these modifications function in normal and aberrant biological states.

RNA functions rely on interactions with RNA binding proteins; the session on RNA binding proteins will describe how RNA-protein interactions regulate chromatin structure, transcription and splicing and how the interactions are involved in development and disease.

Keywords: small noncoding RNAs, RNA modification, RNA binding proteins, tRNA, piRNA, miRNA, tRNA fragments, gene expression, stem cells, muscle cells, development, cancer.

Who should attend: everyone who wants to learn how the RNA world impinges on gene expression in health and disease.

Theme song: “Hello, Goodbye” by the Beatles, because the song reminds us of the life of RNAs in a cell.

This track is powered by different kinds of RNAs — obviously.

Talks

tRNA: Splicing and subcellular dynamics — Anita Hopper, Ohio State University
The role of 3’tsRNAs in gene regulation — Mark Kay, Stanford University
The Piwi-piRNA pathway: A new paradigm in gene regulation — Haifan Lin, Yale University
piRNA biogenesis and function in Drosophila — Mikiko Siomi, University of Tokyo
RNA modification in cancer — Jianjun Chen, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope
RNA modifications in health and disease — Tsutomu Suzuki, University of Tokyo
Acetylation of cytidine in messenger RNA regulates translation — Shalini Oberdoerffer, National Cancer Institute
tRNA quality control: Mechanisms, evolution, and implications for human disease — Eric Phizicky,University of Rochester Medical Center
RNA binding proteins in stem cells and cancer — Takahiro Ito, University of Georgia
The RNA exosome and genetic disease — Anita Corbett, Emory University
RNA, chromatin, and the coordinated control of gene expression — Tracy Johnson, University of California, Los Angeles
How mRNP composition determines mRNA fate — Guramrit Singh, Ohio State University