RNA Biology Snapshots: (1) a mincroRNA controlling neuroendocrine differentiation and neuroblastoma; (2) formation and export of circular RNAs

Abstract

(1) The miR-200 family of microRNAs are well known to control EMT and to inhibit migration and invasion of breast and prostate cancers. However, our recent experiments indicate that miR-200 acts as a regulator of sympathetic neuron and chromaffin cell differentiation, and as a tumour suppressor in the neuroblasts that can give rise to neuroblastoma. I will describe the regulatory pathway involved.

(2) I will discuss mechanisms controlling specific circRNA formation in epithelial and mesenchymal cells, and the mechanism by which circRNAs are exported from the nucleus.

 

About the Speaker

After graduate studies at the University of Adelaide in enzymology and protein chemistry, Greg Goodall undertook postdoctoral training at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology in New Jersey, USA. Subsequently moving to Switzerland to work with Witold Filipowicz at the Friedrich Miescher Institute, he embraced the world of RNA and post-transcriptional mechanisms of gene regulation, and has continued in this research field since returning to Adelaide where he is now a Section Leader in the Centre for Cancer Biology, SA Pathology, co-Director of the Centre for Cancer Biology’s ACRF Cancer Genomics Facility. His recent work has been on microRNAs and circular RNAs involved in cell invasion, epithelial to mesenchymal transition, and cancer metastasis.