Thursday, November 30, 2017

BISTRO - Nguyen Vo

4:00 PM

2036 Palmer Commons

BISTRO is restricted to U-M Bioinformatics Graduate Program students and faculty.

"The Landscape of Circular RNA in Cancer"

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are an intriguing class of RNA with covalently closed structure, high stability, and implicated roles in splicing and gene regulation. Here we first introduced the use of exome capture RNA-Seq to detect and characterize circRNAs across >800 clinical cancer samples. When benchmarked against other non-poly(A)-selected sequencing protocol, capture sequencing could significantly enhance the enrichment of circRNAs and preserved accurate circular-to-linear ratios. We compiled the detected circRNAs from capture sequencing into the public OncoCirc database, the most comprehensive catalog of circRNA species to-date. With this database, we identified the best circRNAs to serve as biomarkers for prostate cancer. OncoCirc will serve as a valuable resource for the development of circRNA for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes for other cancers.