0:00
Hello to everybody.
As usual, it's my pleasure
to present to you
what I like to do more after
playing with my kids,
playing with microRNAs
and non-coding RNAs.
My name is George Calin,
I'm a professor
in MD Anderson Cancer Center
and I will tell you today about
the non-coding RNA revolution
in the cancer society.
0:23
Basically what is new
and what is wonderful in science
is the fact that you never know
what the next day
is bringing you.
Genomics was bringing
to the scientists
working in this field basically
the so-called Dark Matter.
It's a part of the genome
that is not transcribed
in protein coding genes.
So therefore was supposed to be
the trash can of the genome.
By analyzing data
and by analyzing transcripts,
in this place where nobody
was looking for,
starting about
two decades again,
genetics turned around
and basically now
it's full of over 1 million
so-called non-coding RNAs.
These RNAs
who did not codify or proteins
but regulates this expression
of protein coding genes,
and this is the main topic
of my presentation today.
1:16
Basically, the dogma
of molecular biology
was very simple,
and everybody was believing
this is final truth of genomics.
DNA is the most important,
is transcribed in RNAs
who are translated to proteins.
RNAs were considered
intermediary of genetic flow,
so very few people
were interested in
understanding
how really RNA was working.
There were some flagging
discovery showing
that RNAs are not bystanders
in the dogma like
the identification of ribozymes
or the identification of editing,
but still RNAs were considered
secondary player in the game.
