Burton Yang

Research Synopsis

Three approaches are taken to study miRNA function in transgenic mice expressing miR-17, versican 3’UTR, which can bind endogenous miRNAs and relieve mRNAs for translation, and anti-miR-378 construct.     

Burton Yang’s lab has been taking three different approaches to study microRNA functions. In the first approach, they generated a transgenic mouse line expressing a microRNA precursor, miR-17. In the second approach, the group generated a transgenic mice expressing the 3’-untranslated region (UTR) of versican. The idea was that exogenous expressed 3’UTR will bind endogenous microRNAs and relieve mRNAs for translation. As a result, the protein levels are up-regulated. In the third approach, they developed a transgenic mouse line expressing the anti-sense construct of miR-378. The work has clinical application potentially.