Mingyi Xie, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology in the UF College of Medicine, has received a two-year, $400,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the role of RNA modifications in non-small cell lung cancer.
Xie’s team recently found in lung cancer cells and a mouse model that 7SK small nuclear RNA, a type of abundant non-coding RNA, contained unusually high levels of an RNA modification called N6-methyladenosine (m6A). 7SK plays an important role in RNA transcription, the process in which cells make new RNA. The researchers found that targeted reduction of the modification inhibited lung cancer cell growth.
The goal of the current study is to explore the molecular pathways that regulate m6A and uncover how the RNA modification affects gene regulatory networks in non-small cell lung cancer, the major subtype of lung cancer and a leading cause of cancer death.
The team anticipates the study will reveal novel molecular details of m6A modifications and shed light on how they regulate cancer gene expression. The findings will provide the basis for future research to develop new non-small cell lung cancer therapeutics by altering levels of the modification.
Xie is a member of the UF Health Cancer Center’s Mechanisms of Oncogenesis research program. He is collaborating on the study with Jorg Bungert, Ph.D., a professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology; Lizi Wu, Ph.D., a professor in the department of molecular genetics and microbiology and co-leader of the Mechanisms of Oncogenesis research program; and Maurice Swanson, Ph.D., a professor in the department of molecular genetics and microbiology.
