MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that were first discovered in 1993 by Lee and colleagues in C elegans, and function by regulating both the degradation and translation of their mRNA targets. However, the roles of microRNAs in animals would not be discovered for another decade. We discovered a role for the miR-200 family of microRNAs as a gatekeeper of epithelial cells, with a critical role in the prevention of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process important for normal organ and tissue formation during development but also promotes metastasis of solid tumours when dysregulated.
Neuroblastoma is a devastating childhood cancer that is the leading cause of cancer related death in children under the age of 5. It arises from undifferentiated neuroblasts in the primordia of the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal gland. Neuroblastomas have few gene point mutations but show a diversity of gene copy number and gene expression alterations, suggesting the disease is driven primarily by changes in the levels of RNAs and proteins, rather than by genomic mutations.
In this presentation, I will present our unpublished work on the role of microRNAs in development of the sympathetic nervous system and their potential roles in the childhood cancer neuroblastoma.