Topic for June: Interoperating cloud platforms to survey the baseline for LINE-1 expression in non-tumor tissues

This June, the CGC Webinar series features a talk by Dr. Wilson McKerrow. Dr. McKerrow is a postdoctoral fellow working with Drs. David Fenyö (http://fenyolab.org/) and Jef Boeke at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and his research focuses on the regulation of retrotransposons and their roles in human disease, especially cancer.

LINE-1 retrotransposons are genomic sequences capable of copying themselves to new loci by reverse transcribing an RNA intermediate. When expressed, they can contribute to genome instability in cancer and to age-related inflammation. While LINE-1 activity has been heavily studied in tumors, the baseline expression in non-tumor tissues is not well understood.

In this upcoming webinar, Dr. McKerrow will discuss his LINE-1 research in collaboration with Seven Bridges: linking RNA-seq data from GTEx to his L1EM tool on the CGC to survey LINE-1 expression outside the context of cancer. His findings showed a low level of LINE-1 expression in normal epithelial tissues, but little to no expression in blood, brain, fat, or muscle tissues. This reflects the fact that LINE-1 is frequently expressed in epithelial-derived tumors, but rarely seen in those derived from blood or brain.

Dr. Wilson McKerrow