Dr Minglei Yang

Minglei is working on the RNA structure biology, an emerging new layer of regulation in gene expression.

RNA has the capacity to encode information, fold into structures, and engage in interactions. RNA can take advantage of its own specific physico-chemical properties to form complex secondary and tertiary structures. Correct RNA folding is crucial for its functionality.

Genome-wide analyses of the eukaryotic transcriptome have revealed the pervasive nature of eukaryotic transcription (Jensen et al., 2013), leading to the bursting emergence of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) as “dark matters” of life. Although it has been proved that the RNA secondary structure is critical for the biological function of tRNA, rRNA and snoRNA, the contributions of RNA secondary structures to these non-coding RNA including lncRNA has been elusive.

Minglei adopts cutting edge of chemical tools and advanced high throughput sequencing to decipher the long non-coding RNA, i.e., coolair RNA structure in vivo. The technology and biological advance will reveal the importance of RNA structure biology in understanding the biological regulation mechanism.