rna and Cancer

Research works

The control of gene expression is an essential biological process for all organisms.

The genome of a cell contains all the information a cell needs to grow, divide and multiply. To access this information, DNA must be transcribed into RNA.

RNAs can be divided into two classes:

• messenger RNAs (mRNAs), which are translated into proteins,
• non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), which are functional as RNA molecules and not for translation into proteins.

Gene expression in humans is complex and highly regulated. RNA molecules are known to regulate various biological processes. Regulation of mRNAs is thus achieved by various RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), non-coding RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and epigenetic modifications.

The CRCT teams in Axis 2 explore the deregulation of these key players in the control of gene expression and their role in altering the cellular landscape that can lead to cancer initiation, maintenance, progression, invasion/metastasis and resistance to chemotherapy and targeted therapies including immunotherapy. This axis is coordinated by  Fabienne Meggetto.