Regulatory potential of 3'UTR introns in stem cell differentiation

Gene regulation is at the heart of many biological processes, including the processes by which embryonic stem cells differentiate to become adult tissues. One way in which genes are regulated is by the stability of their mRNA. This project involves investigating a novel mechanism by which RNA stability may be regulated and how this might impact on differentiation of human stem cells.

The project will involve a mixture of bioinformatics and laboratory based experiments. Existing and newly generated big-data sets will be analyzed to identify splicing events which may affect transcript stability. The effects of these events will then be validated and further explored in cell culture.

The student will be offered a uniquely comprehensive training in computational biology, next-generation sequencing analysis and stem cell lab techniques.