Zhengqing Ouyang
University of Massachusetts, MA·Biochemistry
RNA molecules do much more than carry genetic messages. How they fold into three-dimensional (3D) shapes helps decide what they do and how long they last, in both health and disease.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Computer Science
Mathematics & Statistics
- Topics
RNA structure
RNA 3D structure
RNA structurome
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2030
What they work on
- Develop statistical and computational methods to infer in vivo RNA 3D structures from proximity-ligation sequencing data, which records which RNA segments are physically close in living cells.
- Validate the inferred RNA 3D structures by comparing them with experimentally determined RNA 3D structures.
- Apply the framework to ribosomal RNAs, messenger RNAs and long noncoding RNAs from various cell types to map the RNA 3D structurome at high resolution.
- Characterize how functional elements within RNA transcripts are organized in 3D space, using the reconstructed structures.
More about the research
Yet little is known about how the full set of RNAs in a cell (the transcriptome) folds in 3D space. This research program develops statistical and computational methods to reconstruct the 3D structures of all RNAs in living cells, which the PI calls the RNA 3D structurome.
Why it matters
Because RNA structure shapes RNA fate and function, maps of RNA 3D folding could offer new insights into how RNA structure relates to human disease. This could help researchers identify and refine potential targets for disease diagnosis and treatment.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ying Wang
University of Florida, FL·Plant Science & Agriculture
Determine the in vivo structures of viroid RNAs in different subcellular locations of living plant cells, using chemical probing that marks how RNA is folded together with computational algorithms.
Yousuf Khan
Stanford University, CA·Biophysics
Assemble RNAmass, a large RNA sequence database including viral and non-coding RNAs. Use it to train RNA-FLM1, a foundation language model, first on all sequences and then on evolutionarily conserved ones.
Jean-Denis Beaudoin
University of Connecticut, CT·Genetics
Generate detailed maps of the epitranscriptome, the chemical modifications on RNA, across the native zebrafish transcriptome during the maternal-to-zygotic transition, and test how specific modifications affect gene expression.
The school
University of Massachusetts: 28 labs on PI Pages, $282M a year on research, 337 research doctorates a year.
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