Project

Unraveling the MYC cancer IncRNA network

Code
31511213
Duration
01 January 2013 → 31 December 2015
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Research disciplines
  • Medical and health sciences
    • Laboratory medicine
    • Medical systems biology
    • Laboratory medicine
    • Medical systems biology
    • Molecular and cell biology
    • Laboratory medicine
    • Medical systems biology
    • Molecular and cell biology
Keywords
cancer
 
Project description

The MYC family of transcription factors are among the most frequently activated oncogenes in cancer. Decades of intensive research have led to a fairly comprehensive view on the plethora of protein-coding genes implicated in the MYC-transcriptional network. Recently, we have shown that MYC-genes can trans-activate the expression of microRNAs (miRNAs), a specific class of small non-coding RNAs implicated in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. In addition, miRNAs have been identified that function upstream of MYC-genes and directly regulate its expression. The goal of this project is to evaluate the role of an emerging class of non-coding RNA molecules, the long non-coding RNAs or lncRNAs, in the MYC-network. LncRNAs are the most abundant class of non-coding RNA molecules and have only recently been described in full detail. In order to identify MYC-regulated lncRNAs, I will profile lncRNA expression in different MYC-model systems and evaluate MYC binding to candidate lncRNA promoter regions. In vitro and in vivo perturbation of the identified lncRNAs will be performed in order to assess their functions and putative targets. LncRNAs with the potential to regulate MYC will be identified through an integrative analysis of matching lncRNA and protein-coding gene expression data. Candidate MYC-regulating lncRNAs will be perturbed in vitro to assess their effect on MYC-activity. The findings may give rise to new and attractive targets for anti-cancer therapy.