Previously Funded Research

the past decades, the search for drivers and therapeutic targets in cancer

has primarily focused on protein-coding genes, which account for less than 2%

of the human genome. Recent technological advances in deep sequencing have

revealed that over 70% of mammalian genomes is actively transcribed into

thousands of long transcripts that do not encode for proteins. Until recently

regarded as “junk DNA”, there is a growing recognition that this new class of

genes, called long noncoding RNAs, regulates a wide range of biological

processes. The importance of long noncoding RNAs in influencing disease

states, such as cancer, however, remains vastly understudied.

With the

generous support from the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, the Dimitrova lab

will develop and utilize innovative approaches to shed light on the

contribution of long noncoding RNAs to lung cancer development. The aim is to

elucidate how altered expression of long noncoding RNAs promotes or

suppresses tumor growth and to identify the key elements that underlie their

roles in cancer. With the advent of technologies that can interfere with RNA

function, these studies will lay the foundation for the development of tools

that harness the power of long noncoding RNAs for therapeutic applications.