The RNA Transcript, August 16, 2021
Introducing the RNA Student Postdoc Council's 
RNA Tools & Techniques Video Series 


The Center for RNA Biomedicine’s RNA Student and Postdoc Council is launching a series of short videos that demonstrate RNA techniques to a peer audience. The goal is to share expertise and support each other's experimental work. 
 
The first video, titled “Total RNA Extraction,” (3 minutes) shows a basic technique for RNA extraction. This technique has many broad applications and often constitutes the first step of an RNA study. It is posted on our YouTube channel.
"This was a great exercise for creating scientifically useful content while COVID kept us out of the lab. I look forward to leveraging these skills to enhance scientific communication and help promote techniques that the Center for RNA biomedicine has to offer!" said Robb Welty, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Nils Walter’s lab, Department of Chemistry.
 
“We had a lot of fun creating this video and hope that it will be of use to the RNA community. Our goal for this series of videos is to make RNA biology techniques easier to understand and implement,” said Marissa Cloutier, a Ph.D. student in Sundeep Kalantry’s lab in the Department of Human Genetics.
 
The team plans to create other videos about more sophisticated techniques next year.
 
This technique video series is part of the Center for RNA Biomedicine’s skill share and community building strategy.
Attention RNA students and postdoctoral fellows:
Would you like to further engage with the RNA research community?
We are looking for U-M graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to join the RNA Student Postdoc Council during the 2021-2022 academic year.

The objective of the RNA Council is to work collaboratively across disciples, build community, and generate innovative ideas to advance RNA research and education across the University of Michigan. 

Expectations of RNA Council members include 2hrs service/month (1hr monthly meeting and 1hr follow-up work based on meeting outcomes).

For more information, please contact Martina Jerant at mjerant@umich.edu.
Wednesday, August 25, 9:00 am ET | RNA Collaborative Seminar Series, hosted by the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB)

“Regulation of neurodegeneration-linked RNA-binding proteins by nuclear import receptors and post-translational modifications”  
Dorothee Dormann, Ph.D.

"Small RNAs and epigenetic inheritance"  
René Ketting, Ph.D. 

Moderator: Julian König, Ph.D.
Monday–Wednesday, September 20–22, RiboClub Meeting (Virtual)
Late registration (no abstract) deadline is September 1, 2021

"Transcriptomics and cancer biology"

Keynote speakers:
Jody Puglisi, Stanford University, USA
Tom Cech, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
 
For press releases and blog articles about your upcoming top journal publications, please
contact Elisabeth Paymal.

Our members' publications are available through Altmetric. Five queries are currently available: "RNA," "microRNA," "Transcriptome," "Translation," and "Molecule." Please make sure to have at least one of these key words in your title or abstract. Below are recent highlights.
Sleep loss drives acetylcholine- and somatostatin interneuron-mediated gating of hippocampal activity, to inhibit memory consolidation, James Delorme, Lijing Wang, Femke Roig Kuhn, Varna Kodoth, Jingqun Ma , Jessy D. Martinez, Frank Raven, Brandon A. Toth, Vinodh Balendran, Alexis Vega Medina, Sha Jiang, Sara J. Aton, PNAS, 

Abstract: Sleep loss disrupts consolidation of hippocampus-dependent memory. ... Together, our data suggest that state-dependent gating of DG activity may be mediated by cholinergic input and local Sst+ interneurons. This mechanism could act as a sleep loss–driven inhibitory gate on hippocampal information processing.
High-throughput splicing assays identify missense and silent splice-disruptive POU1F1 variants underlying pituitary hormone deficiency, Peter Gergics, Cathy Smith, Hironori Bando, Alexander A.L. Jorge, Denise Rockstroh-Lippold, Sebastian A. Vishnopolska, Frederic Castinetti, Mariam Maksutova, Luciani Renata Silveira Carvalho, Julia Hoppmann, Julián Martínez Mayer, Frédérique Albarel, Debora Braslavsky, Ana Keselman, Ignacio Bergadá, Marcelo A. Martí, Alexandru Saveanu, Anne Barlier, Rami Abou Jamra, Michael H. Guo, Andrew Dauber, Marilena Nakaguma, Berenice B. Mendonca, Sajini N. Jayakody, A. Bilge Ozel, Qing Fang, Qianyi Ma, Jun Z. Li, Thierry Brue, María Ines Pérez Millán, Ivo J.P. Arnhold, Roland Pfaeffle, Jacob O. Kitzman, Sally A. Camper, The American Journal of Human Genetics (2021), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.06.013.

Often overlooked because they might not alter the amino acid production, splicing defects can play an important role in rare genetic pituitary gland diseases.

Abstract: Background: Thousands of genetic variants have been associated with hematological traits, though target genes remain unknown at most loci. Moreover, limited analyses have been conducted in African ancestry and Hispanic/Latino populations; hematological trait associated variants more common in these populations have likely been missed. ....
Spatially resolved image-based transcriptomics using high-throughput single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization (HITSFISH), Andrej Coleski, Sethu Pitchiaya, Jeremy D'Silva, Marcin Cieslik and Arul Chinnaiyan, Cancer Research, Published July 2021, DOI: 10.1158/1538-7445.AM2021-2162 

Abstract: Single-cell transcriptomics enables the study of heterogeneity by uncovering the transcriptome of individual cells, which is averaged out in bulk analyses. This facilitates the grouping of cells based on similar transcriptomic profiles, potentially identifying cell subpopulations, such as rare tumor cells that mediate drug resistance or undergo metastasis. Image-based transcriptomic techniques can go a step further in uniquely profiling cells, by providing information about the spatial co-ordinates of transcripts and cells, whilst shedding light on cell morphology for phenotypic characterization. Single-molecule Fluorescence in situ hybridization (smFISH) is one image-based method in which fluorescently labeled tiling-oligonucleotide (TO) probes are bound along the length of complementary RNA strands, allowing for the detection of transcripts at nanometer-scale resolution. ....
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