Peeping into the Genomic Dark Matter

Breakthroughs in genomics have uncovered large number of noncoding RNAs
whose functions remain elusive. Recently studies showed that the
noncoding coding component of the genome, often described as the biological
dark matter, play major roles in cellular physiology. The list of different
types of noncoding RNAs continues to expand. I will discuss ongoing
investigations in my laboratory on the learning regulated noncoding RNAs
and their interactomes in neuronal structural plasticity. These studies
involve molecular, quantitative live imaging and omics experiments in
primary neuronal cultures and intact animals to gain mechanistic
insights into noncoding RNA function.