Topic: Intron-Encoded Cistronic Transcripts for Minimally-Invasive Monitoring of (Non-)Coding RNAs
Speaker: Niklas Armbrust, HELENA doctoral candidate (Westmeyer Group)
Date and Time: Tuesday, 08 February 2022, 1:00 pm
Abstract: Despite their fundamental role for assessing (patho)physiological cell states, conventional gene reporters can follow gene expression but leave scars on the proteins or substantially alter the mature mRNA. Multi-time-point measurements of non-coding RNAs are currently impossible without modifying their nucleotide sequence, which can alter their native function, half-life, and localization. We thus developed INSPECT, Intron-encoded Scarless Programmable Extranuclear Cistronic Transcripts, as minimally-invasive transcriptional reporters embedded within an intron of a gene of interest. Post-transcriptional excision of INSPECT results in unmodified mRNA and a synthetic transcript that leaves the nucleus by hijacking the nuclear export machinery for subsequent translation into a reporter or effector protein. We showcase monitoring interleukin-2 (IL2) after T-cell activation and tracking transcriptional dynamics of the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) NEAT1 during CRISPRi-mediated perturbation. INSPECT is the first method for monitoring gene transcription without altering the target of interest at either the RNA or protein level.
More information
This semester, the MIBE Seminar will take place online (Zoom). Please register via email (katharina.scholz(at)tum.de) and we are happy to provide the access data.
Further Program Winter Term 2021 / 2022
| 15 February 2022 | 1:00 pm | Alessandro Wollek | GCB doct. cand. (Lasser) | Out-of-Distribution Detection for Clinical Decision Support in Radiology. |