Combined Computational and Experimental Analyses of Gene Regulation by MicroRNAs

项目摘要 MicroRNAs(MiRNAs)广泛参与许多不同的生物学过程和一种 单个miRNA可以调节数百个基因靶点的表达。MiRNA的变化 表达可产生深远的生物学影响，导致多种人类疾病。因此， MiRNAs的功能表征已经成为当今最活跃的研究领域之一 最近几年的生物学研究。尽管miRNA研究取得了快速进展，但这方面的一个主要障碍 该领域缺乏可靠的计算和实验方法来研究功能性miRNA 分析。1)在实验方面，有开发新方法的强烈需求 可以有效地抑制miRNAs的表达，用于功能丧失分析。2)在 在计算方面，对改进的目标预测工具的要求很高，因为 MiRNA靶标的预测是miRNA功能分析的关键第一步。此外，还有 缺乏通过访问数据对miRNAs进行功能分析的全面在线资源 来自计算和实验来源。为解决这些问题，我们建议 开发用于miRNAs计算和实验分析的新方法。这些 新的方法将基于我们研究的最新进展，由这笔R01拨款支持。 所有新生成的计算和实验资源将在 在线miRNA数据库，免费分发实验试剂供研究使用 社区。

Project Summary MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are extensively involved in many diverse biological processes and a single miRNA can regulate the expression of hundreds of gene targets. Changes in miRNA expression can have profound biological impacts, leading to a variety of human diseases. Thus, functional characterization of miRNAs has become one of the most active research fields in biology in recent years. Despite rapid progress in miRNA research, one major obstacle in this field is the lack of robust computational and experimental methods for functional miRNA analysis. 1) On the experimental side, there is a strong demand to develop new methods that can potently suppress the expression of miRNAs for loss-of-function analysis. 2) On the computational side, improved target prediction tools are strongly demanded, as accurate prediction of miRNA targets is a critical first step for miRNA functional analysis. Further, there is a lack of comprehensive online resources for functional analysis of miRNAs by accessing data from both computational and experimental sources. To address these issues, we propose to develop new methods for both computational and experimental analyses of miRNAs. These new methods will be based on recent progress from our research supported by this R01 grant. All newly generated computational and experimental resources will be integratively presented in an online miRNA database, with experimental reagents freely distributed to the research community.