Jason Serviss Email and Phone Number

The recent advances in high-throughput sequencing have made it possible to analyze the DNA and RNA of cells at an unprecedented detail and this has shed new light on our understanding of the human genome. It is now thought that up to 75% of our genome is transcribed although less than 2% of this is responsible for protein coding. The originally held view that RNAs function mainly as information intermediates between DNA and proteins needs to be abandoned as it is now clear that RNA:s have… Show more The recent advances in high-throughput sequencing have made it possible to analyze the DNA and RNA of cells at an unprecedented detail and this has shed new light on our understanding of the human genome. It is now thought that up to 75% of our genome is transcribed although less than 2% of this is responsible for protein coding. The originally held view that RNAs function mainly as information intermediates between DNA and proteins needs to be abandoned as it is now clear that RNA:s have multiple regulatory functions in the cell. It has been shown that many ncRNAs, i.e. RNAs that are not translated into functional proteins, play critical roles in cancer development by virtue of their ability to orchestrate gene expression. NcRNAs come in many different forms, from small RNA:s, including the well-studied microRNAs (miRNAs), to long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) [3]. For the selected few lncRNAs that have been studied, interesting regulatory functions have been identified. For example, HOTAIR is an oncogenic RNA that acts as an epigenetic repressor of multiple metastasis suppressor genes, including the HOXD genes. Consequently, it is overexpressed in many different types of tumors and its expression level is a powerful predictor of patient outcome in breast cancer. Although additional lncRNAs, such as ANRIL, PCAT-1, GAS5 and MALAT1, have been linked to cancer progression, there is still a considerable lack of knowledge concerning how most lncRNAs participate in tumor development.In this project we plan to further investigate novel and known lncRNAs by examining their dysregulation, function, and mechanism of action with a primary focus on pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia. We will implement next generation RNA sequencing and protocols developed in-house for advanced functional studies to further identify and characterise lncRNAs playing a major role in cancer. Show less

Dan Grander laboratory with a focus on long non-coding RNAs involvement in cancer.

Edvard Smith's laboratory with focus on induced pluripotent stem cells for use in disease modeling and regenerative medicine.