RNA steers cell fate

Almost every cell in your body carries the same genes. A nerve cell and a skin cell differ because each uses a different set of them. To use a gene, a cell copies it into a messenger RNA (mRNA), which carries the instructions for making a protein. Which mRNAs a cell keeps, and for how long, helps decide what the cell becomes. Our lab studies the RNAs and proteins that make these choices. MicroRNAs are tiny RNAs that switch off particular mRNAs, and we found out how cells make them. In stem cells, for example, a protein called LIN28 blocks a microRNA that would push them to specialize. Each mRNA also ends in a long string of A’s, its tail, which works a bit like a timer. We found that adding U’s to the tail marks an mRNA for destruction, while a G slipped in among the A’s protects it. Early embryos use the U mark to clear out the mRNAs their mothers left them and switch to their own. We also study how cells recognize RNA that comes from viruses. What we learn helps us design mRNA medicines, like mRNA vaccines, that last longer inside cells.

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Our lab is part of the Center for RNA Research of the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and the School of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University.