报告人：于文强教授

主持人：江赐忠教授

时间：4月28日下午14：00

地点：医学楼1102室

         于文强，复旦大学生物医学研究院高级PI、研究员，973项目首席科学家。1989至2001年先后在第四军医大学医学学士，医学硕士和医学博士学位。2001年至2007年先后在瑞典UPPSALA大学，美国约翰霍普金斯大学医学院从事博士后研究，于2008年任美国哥伦比亚大学医学院Faculty， Associate research Scientist（Assistant professor level）。研究成果先后发表在Nature，Nature Genetics，JAMA，Genome Research等杂志。

Abstract：

       MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that primarily function through the destabilization or translational repression by targeting the 3’ untranslated region (3’UTR) in the cytoplasm. Various evidences show that microRNAs can re-enter andexist in nucleus, but their functional significance has remained elusive. Here, we identify a subset of miRNAs function as universal and natural gene activators emanating from enhancer loci, which we term NamiRNA (Nuclear activating miRNA). These miRNAs are associated with active enhancers characterized by distinct H3K27ac enrichment, p300/CBP binding and DNaseI hypersensitivity. Importantly, ectopic expression of NamiRNA leads to the transcriptional activation of its neighboring genes. Consistently, these activating events were completely lost when the miRNA original or targeted sequence was deleted genetically. Finally, we present evidence that NamiRNA promotes genome-wide gene transcription through the binding and activating of its targeted enhancers. Thus, we anticipate that NamiRNA mediated transcriptional gene activation may represent a novel mechanism of miRNA and that NamiRNA-enhancer-mRNA activation network may be involved in cell behavior modulation during development and disease progression.