Epitranscriptomics and cancer

Our research group is interested in uncovering the molecular mechanisms regulating tissue homeostasis during normal development and during pathological conditions, in particular in cancer. Using a combination of novel transcriptome-wide analyses and mouse and human in vitro and in vivo models, we are focused on studying the role of post-transcriptional modifications such as RNA methylation in normal development and during pathological conditions. RNA modifications are beginning to define a novel layer of biological complexity that is becoming widely appreciated as the epitranscriptome. To date over 170 known chemical modifications are known in RNA. Emerging evidence is revealing that post-transcriptional modifications such as cytosine-5 or adenine-6 methylation mediate regulation of gene expression and protein translation efficiency and accuracy. Our group has become a pioneer on describing the functional and pathological role of cytosine-5 methylation of RNA. We have described ho