Research Project 10
Characterization of microRNA primary transcripts by Nanopore direct RNA sequencing
About the Project
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Genoa, Italy
Tommaso Leonardi
Main Supervisor
Francesco Nicassio
Co-Supervisor
Universitat de València
PhD enrolment
Yearly salary
30.510,48 € (Gross)
Research Objectives
- Develop analysis pipeline to annotate the primary sequence, exon connectivity and 5′ capping sites of miRNA primary transcripts.
- Profile RNA modifications and A to I editing sites in pri-miRNAs.
- Probe the secondary structure of pri-miRNAs and generate a comprehensive model of processing regulation by the Microprocessor.
Envisioned Secondments
- Nanopore (Aino Järvelin): Collaboration direct RNA Sequencing of pre-miRNAs.
- CRG (Eva Maria Novoa): Collaboration for modification detection in Nanopore data.
About the Main Supervisor and Host Group
The “Non-Coding Genome” consists of 14 people (1 technologist, 2 affiliated researchers, 3 senior post-docs, 2 junior post docs, 3 PhD students, 2 research fellows and 1 undergraduate student). Scientific interests are centered on the exploitation of genomic approaches to the study of mechanisms in control of gene expression provided by non-coding RNAs (microRNAs and long noncoding RNAs) and their impact on cell behaviour and human disease, with emphasis on Cancer. Research activity is based on the integration of Experimental models with Computational methodologies. The lab is in the Center for Genomic Science of IIT@SEMM in Milan, an outstation of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). The center benefits from large technological infrastructure, a wide scientific network on RNA biology and Genomics and close ties with European Institute of Oncology (IEO-hospital, Milan), one of the largest cancer hospitals in Italy, which hosts our lab spaces and provides us with complementary infrastructure as well access to clinical data and biological samples for cancer studies. The Non-coding Genome Lab is part of a vibrant international scientific network, centered on RNA biology, which includes the RNA initiative (iRNA@IIT) promoted by the IIT and aimed at generating ground-breaking interdisciplinary knowledge in the fields of RNA biology, RNA technologies and RNA-based therapeutics and many collaborators form outstanding international research institutes, including the EMBL-EBI; the RIKEN Institute; Karolinska Institutet and Human Technopole (HT).