ABOUT SHIZUKA UCHIDA
Dr. Shizuka Uchida is a professor (WSR) and co-director at Center for RNA Medicine, Department of Clinical Medicine. He is interested in elucidating the functions of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) and epitranscriptomics enzymes using dry (bioinformatics) and wet (biology) lab techniques. He and his team have built a number of bioinformatics tools to help analyze high-throughput data (e.g., microarrays, RNA-seq). Prof. Dr. Uchida utilizes knockout and transgenic mice to understand the effects of ncRNAs and epitranscriptomics to cardiovascular system and development. He is currently on the editorial board of 14 international journals and is passionate about communicating the scientific findings to the academia and public in general.

UNDERSTANDING CARDIOVASCULAR RNA BIOLOGY: LNCRNAS AND EPITRANSCRIPTOMICS
Advances in next-generation sequencing, particularly RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), have led to the discovery of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), whose number surpasses that of protein-coding genes. With the rise of single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq), many cell-type-specific lncRNAs have been identified, yet the functions of lncRNAs remain largely unknown. As proteins have numerous functions, it is natural to assume that a myriad of functions for lncRNAs are waiting to be uncovered. By definition, lncRNAs are non-protein-coding transcripts. Thus, it is essential to examine the sequence structures of lncRNAs to determine the functions of lncRNAs. Currently, there are over 170 known RNA modifications (e.g., A-to-I RNA editing, m6A methylation, and pseudouridylation) that can affect the structures and functions of RNAs, including lncRNAs. In this lecture, I will present the latest research about lncRNAs and epitranscriptomics in cardiovascular system and disease.