Interviews
Our researcher Dr.. Roberto Munita was published by Forbes magazine
- December 22, 2023
- Publicado por: ACCDIS
- Category: Featured News Featured news
“Unlocking the mysteries of RNA could help find new therapies for cancer."
A Chilean researcher and his team are studying the mysteries of RNA, to one day help develop RNA-based therapies for diseases such as cancer.
The global RNA therapeutics market in terms of revenue is estimated to be worth$13.7 billion in 2023, But there's also intense academic interest in unraveling the mysteries behind this part of the molecular machinery that helps make the building blocks of our bodies.
Roberto Munita Robert, Assistant Professor, Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases (ACCDiS ), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Faculty of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Chile, says its main goal is to better understand how RNA regulates gene expression, which is to say, How the information encoded in a gene is used to direct protein assembly.
“I'm also intrigued by how alterations in non-coding RNAs and RNA-related processes, such as splicing and RNA modifications, can influence pathologies such as cancer”, Says. “We're focusing on two essential cellular machines: The ribosome and the spliceosome. “.
Ribosomes are known as protein factories of the body and receive their instructions through messenger RNA. (MRNA), From which the spliceosome has already eliminated the non-coding regions; Then, The ribosome uses these instructions to dictate the order in which amino acids should be added to the protein chain as it is synthesized.
Munita explains that during his postdoc at Lund University in Sweden, The team found evidence that not all ribosomes and spliceosomes in our bodies are identical and that some tissues possess distinct versions of these molecular machines.
“This variation seems to be altered under certain pathological conditions, Like cancer”, Says. “If we can fully understand the mechanisms that control this process, We could use this knowledge to look at some diseases from a new perspective and identify new therapeutic targets”. to develop RNA-based therapies”.
Inspired by role models
Munita grew up in Linares, a village 300 km south of Santiago, From an early age, he developed an interest in science and technology, Especially thanks to his high school science teacher, Héctor Parada.
“I remember the moment I decided to dedicate my life to science. It was in the year 2000: I was 16 years old when the sequence of the human genome was published”, says, He adds that a scientist, Alejandro Venegas, He visited his high school to give a lecture on the human genome.
“Afterwards I asked him numerous questions and surprisingly he invited me to his laboratory in Santiago, opportunity that excited me”, Munita says, “This experience marked the beginning of my journey into science”.
Munita says science needs to be further developed in South America, because many regional problems require local solutions.
“This is especially important in the new era of genomics, with the growing generation of human genomic data, Plants & Animals: We must manage this data locally and take advantage of the richness of our diversity”, Says.
RNA Research
Another Latin American researcher working on RNA is the Mexican geneticistSelene Lizbeth Fernandez Valverde .
Fernández, now a full professor at UNSW in Australia, worked on the search for non-coding RNA associated with particular population traits and metabolic disorders such as diabetes in the Mexican population.
“Study of regulatory molecules that turn genes on and off”, says. “For a long time it was thought that they were biological noise, But it has become more apparent that they are important to many processes, including development and disease”.
Fernandez-Valverde says she's interested in how these switches work and the processes they regulate in humans, animals and plants and particularly how they change over time, as they appear and change very quickly compared to proteins.
“They are involved in many diseases such as cancer and diabetes, so they may be relevant pharmacological targets”, Says, adding that the motivation behind this project is that populations with genetic origins (or ancestry) Mixed, like the Mexican population, are severely affected. Little studied.
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