BIOL 408
RNA Worlds Spring 2024
Division III
This is not the current course catalog

RNA is known best as the message cells use to turn genes into proteins. Yet investigations of several unusual genetic phenomena over the past few decades did not find protein-coding genes, but instead uncovered non-coding RNAs with a cornucopia of functions. Today, biologists have begun to develop a framework for how RNA’s non-coding functions play central roles in immune defense and genetic conflicts, in gene regulation and cancer. We will develop our own understanding of this middle world, of RNA’s power to protect the genome and direct cellular processes, through reading and discussion of primary scientific literature. We will learn how this emerging perspective of RNA’s non-coding functions helps to resolve mysteries of epigenetic inheritance and has opened the door to RNA therapeutics.