BIOMG 4380

RNA in Biology and Medicine

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

It is hypothesized that RNA may have been the earliest life form on earth. Nowadays RNA plays three vital roles in biology. It serves as an information carrier to guide biological processes; it adopts sophisticated 3D structures to promote recognition and catalysis; and it promotes cellular compartmentalization. Each of these properties has been exploited for therapeutics and medicine. This course explores the idea of a prehistorical RNA World, dives deep into interesting topics in the RNA biology, and explains their connection to modern medicine. Representative topics include the mechanisms of CRISPR-Cas and RNA interference and their wide-spread applications in research and medicine, ribosome as an antibiotic target, perturbing splicing to cure genetic diseases, connection between telomerase and cancer/aging, etc. Classical experiments as well as up-to-date research are covered in this class. A portion of each class is devoted to student presentations and discussion. After completing this class, students should:

Prerequisites REF-FA25/Corequisites REF-FA25 BIOMG 3300, or BIOMG 3350 or BIOMG 3310/BIOMG 3320 or permission of instructor. Corequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements (OPHLS-AG), (BIO-AS)

Last 4 terms offered (None)

Outcomes REF-FA25

• Understand the chemical structure of RNA.
• Understand the structure motifs in RNA.
• Have a good understanding of the experimental and computational methods in RNA biology research.
• Understand the catalytic strategies in ribozymes.
• Understand the ligand recognition mechanism in riboswitches.
• Understand the role of RNA in important RNA-protein complexes.
• Understand the important topics in translation.
• Understand the RNA splicing/processing/editing process.
• Understand the mechanism of RNA interference in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes.

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