The DNA in our cells contains the information for producing many types of molecules in our body. Certain portions of the DNA are first processed into a set of molecules termed RNA. Majority of the RNA was previously believed to be translated into proteins. However, recent studies clearly establish that more than half of the RNAs are not translated into proteins. Such RNAs, termed ncRNAs that originate from the “junk DNA” are crucial in controlling a large number of cellular processes and are now believed to be involved in human diseases that include cancer.

We develop computational and experimental tools to help us investigate three important questions: (1) Which ncRNAs are involved in cancer? (2) Why are the ncRNAs involved in cancer? (3) What are the functions of the most interesting RNAs in cancer? To address these questions, we harness the power of multiple disciplines that include biological, physical, mathematical, and computer sciences to analyze the human genome and the RNA transcripts that are processed from the human genome.

University of Pittsburgh Department of Computational Biology