SUPR
The human lncRNA atlas
Dnr:

NAISS 2024/22-820

Type:

NAISS Small Compute

Principal Investigator:

Cheng Zhang

Affiliation:

Kungliga Tekniska högskolan

Start Date:

2024-06-12

End Date:

2025-07-01

Primary Classification:

30401: Medical Biotechnology (focus on Cell Biology (incl. Stem Cell Biology), Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Biochemistry or Biopharmacy)

Webpage:

Allocation

Abstract

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are crucial molecular entities composed of nucleotides, known for not encoding proteins. Despite their significant presence, the function of lncRNAs remains largely unexplored. This project proposes to construct a comprehensive atlas of lncRNA genes in the human genome using data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project. Our objective is to categorize these genes and examine their potential functional associations with mRNA genes, enhancing our understanding of their biological roles. We will employ bioinformatic methods to parse and categorize lncRNA and mRNA genes based on their expression profiles. Specific Python scripts will be developed to manage data sorting and analysis. Visual representations, including circle diagrams, will be used to depict the distribution of categorized genes. Notably, preliminary findings indicate varied expression levels: a significant number of lncRNA and mRNA genes show elevated expression, predominantly in brain tissues, suggesting tissue-specific functionalities.