Maninjay K Atianand, MBBS, PhD

The overarching goal of our research is to discover and characterize the role of novel long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) and microproteins in innate immunity, inflammation and host-pathogen interaction. Of the roughly 3 billion bases in the human genome, only 1.5-2% of the genome is dedicated to protein-coding genes. The vast majority of our genome, however, is transcriptionally active and produce thousands of lncRNAs in specific cells and tissues. lncRNAs are non-protein-coding transcripts that mediate their biological activities in an RNA-dependent manner to regulate gene expression at either the transcriptional or post-transcriptional level. While some of these lncRNAs play critical roles in biological contexts ranging from X chromosome inactivation (Xist) and cell development (HOTTIP) to human diseases including cancer (HOTAIR) and autoimmunity, the biological roles of the vast majority of lncRNAs are largely unknown. Our research is aimed at bridging this gap in knowledge by mapping cell-specific lncRNA transcriptomes in immune cells such as macrophages by RNA-sequencing, and uncovering their function and the mechanism using biochemical, molecular and genetic approaches.

Some ongoing projects: