RNA Biology

Dr. Rui Xiao: The RNA world is expanding and the functional significance of regulatory RNAs is gradually uncovered in diverse biological pathways. In RNA metabolism, RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), participating RNA splicing, packaging, transport, cellular localization, stability, translation and degradation, are crucial for the functions of RNAs. Currently, we broke into a new territory that RNA-binding proteins are prevalently involved in direct transcription regulation. Additionally, extensive genetic studies and Genome Wide Association Studies (GWASs) revealed that numerous human diseases are highly associated with RBP mutations. Our lab employs the latest high-throughput sequencing techniques, such as CLIP-seq, RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, GRO-seq, Hi-C and GRID-seq to systematically investigate the biological functions and molecular mechanism of RBPs in human disease.