Lead researcher
Dr Michael Gantier
Main finding
We have recently discovered that microRNAs, which are key regulators of gene expression, can be selectively degraded upon activation of the immune system, according to their length (Nejad et al., RNA 2018). Importantly, the concept that microRNAs can differ in length was only recently appreciated in the field, but poses technical problems for their detection by PCR.
In this work we report a simple modification of a popular PCR method used to detect microRNAs, which better distinguishes between microRNA length variants.
Centre
Centre for Innate Immunity & Infectious Diseases
Research group
Nucleic Acids and Innate Immunity
Journal and article title
Most surprising
A very simple modification based on addition of 3'end bases was sufficient to increase specificity towards short microRNAs.
Future implications
Our methods will help researchers better understand how microRNA length impacts their function.
Disease/health impact
Cancer, disease biomarkers
Other points of interest
NA
