Gopal B Krishnan
Promega Corporation, USA
Title: Simplified and improved RNA workflow tools to study RNA
Biography
Biography: Gopal B Krishnan
Abstract
Micro RNAs (miRNAs) along with small interfering RNAs and several classes of non-coding RNAs (example snRNA, snoRNA and piRNA) have widespread impact on a variety of biological processes. miRNAs are an important class of small RNAs that regulate gene expression. While most of the known mammalian miRNAs have been characterized using cloning and sequencing, there are still many with unknown functions. In general, the analysis of small RNAs and their expression is a critical part of many research studies due to the signifi cant role played by miRNA in controlling vital pathways such as growth, development and death. Much interest has been directed at studying the expression of miRNA in cells and tissues as well as bodily fl uids. Increasing eff ort is directed into bio-informatic prediction of new miRNA sequences. A combination of computational biology tools and molecular cloning methods is being used for characterizing additional miRNAs. However, isolating the mature miRNA fraction is the fi rst critical step in cloning these small regulatory molecules. Th e presentation will focus on tools developed to study small RNA including non-organic reagent based purifi cation methods that ensure high yields of pure RNA protected from RNase degradation and accurately quantify RNA to use in varied down-stream applications such as quantitative RT-PCR, arrays and sequencing. While most traditional RNA isolation methods are not very effi cient at recovering these smaller RNAs that contain 17-24 nucleotide mature miRNA, the RNA workfl ow employed along with this purifi cation method ensures high quality total RNA with enhanced miRNA enrichment from a variety of sample types.
