Mirtron synthesis and expression in leukemia

Mirtron synthesis and expression in leukemia

Advisor/s

A/Prof Ulf Schmitz

College or Research Centre

College of Public Health, Medical & Veterinary Science

Summary of Project

Mirtrons are microRNA molecules that stem from spliced introns. Intron retention on the other hand is a form of alternative splicing whereby introns are retained in mature mRNA transcripts.

In this project we will analyze paired mRNA sequencing and small RNA sequencing data to determine the impact that increased intron retention has on mirtron synthesis and expression. Since both microRNAs and retained introns have been proposed as potent biomarkers for disease stage and survival outcome in cancer we will determine whether a combined signature based on introns retention and mirtron expression can improve prognostic accuracy.

Key Words

bioinformatics; gene regulation; alternative splicing; biomarker discovery; cancer biology

Would suit an applicant who

is interested in cancer biology, gene regulation, transcriptomics data analysis. Some bioinformatics skills (incl. Linux, shell scripting, R programming) would be very helpful.

Updated: 25 Feb 2022