A powerful new technique to uncover how cells modify non-protein-coding RNAs

Question - How does the non-coding RNA sequence processing and modification status interplay to shape the protein-coding transcriptome? 

Result - I aim to develop a novel method that captures a comprehensive, transcriptome-wide picture of the protein-coding messenger RNA (mRNA) and the non-coding RNA (ncRNA) population that regulates mRNA levels. The method will also capture the location and frequency of post-transcriptional chemical modifications on each RNA molecule. Through the method and data generated, we and others will be able to obtain unparalleled insight into how sequence and chemical features of the ncRNA can dynamically impact the broader transcriptome. 

Impact - This method will open new doors for investigating how cells modify non-coding RNAs, on a single molecule basis. This in turn will open up new types of studies into ncRNAs, since their function is believed to be shaped by chemical modifications but this has been hard to establish experimentally.