News from the group:
Research Exchange Fellowships - IAESTE (apply)
CAMDA 2023 - ISMB Conference Track, 26-27 July, Lyon, France (read more)
World-leading patient stratification - graph based cancer data integration (read more)
Confirming molecular mechanisms of tendon regeneration - a powerful ovine fetal model (read more)
CAMDA 2022
ISMB Conference Track,
11-12 July, Madison, USA
(read more)
NVIDIA GTC Best Poster Award
for MM Kańduła
at GTC'18
Outstanding Presentation Prize
for MM Kańduła
at CAMDA'17
Outstanding Presentation Prize
for PP Łabaj
at CAMDA'15 (photo)
Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation scholarship
for MM Kańduła
at Boston University
OeAW APART fellowship
for PP Łabaj
(photo)

Sequencing Quality Control (SEQC) project,
MAQC Consortium 2011–2014 (read more)
Host–parasite interactions in biocontrol, WWTF grant 2010–2013 (read more)

Power and limitations of RNA-Seq,
FDA SEQC, Nature Biotechnology (read more)
Characterization and improvement of RNA-Seq precision,
Bioinformatics (read more)
Impact of heavy tails in microarray analysis, Bioinformatics (read more)
Novel conserved repeats in sorting signals,
FEBS Journal (read more)
Sound sensation gene,
Nature communications
(read more)
RNA interference in ageing research,
Gerontology (read more)

RNA interference in ageing research

General mechanism of RNAi by siRNAs (follow link for full figure and legend) The search for genetic mechanisms affecting life-span and ageing represents an important part of ageing research, especially since the discovery of single-gene mutations with dramatic effects on these traits. Considering its relative ease of use, its power to specifically target arbitrary genes, and the feasibility of genome-wide screens, RNA interference (RNAi) has rapidly been adopted as a technique for silencing gene expression. With afocus on the model organisms Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster, and discussing recent technical developments, this review highlights the current and future impact of this technology in the field.

We show how RNAi has successfully been used to complement classic mutant studies. Moreover, we discuss the novel opportunities and challenges of an application of RNAi in genome-wide screens in D. melanogaster, which has become possible with the recent availability of a comprehensive transgenic RNAi library for the fly. We highlight, in particular, how the flexible control of RNAi induction can support the study of dynamic processes like ageing through specific experiments and the development of matching computational methods. In an overview of complementary approaches we discuss the challenge of extracting insight from the high-dimensional measurement datasets that are required for the study of dynamic effects and interaction dependencies.

Recent developments enable genome-wide screens with unprecedented temporal and spatial control of RNAi induction. Specific RNAi time-course experiments provide an opportunity for the analysis of high-resolution gene expression profiles capturing the dynamics of ageing-relevant processes and gene interactions. Research exploiting new avenues opened by the growing RNAi toolbox will considerably contribute to the next steps in researching the genetics of ageing and age-related diseases.

Reference

Minois N, Sykacek P, Godsey B, Kreil DP (2010) RNA Interference in Ageing Research. Gerontology, Epub ahead of print. (read more)



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