Tewari, Muneesh

My laboratory is broadly interested in applying principles from systems biology and complexity science to advance both basic and applied research on cancer. More specifically, we are currently investigating regulatory networks comprised by a newly discovered class of small (21 nucleotides in their mature form) non-protein-encoding RNA molecules known as microRNAs (miRNAs). These noncoding RNAs function as genetic repressors by binding to partially complementary sequences in the 3'-untranslated regions of specific target messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and targeting these messages for degradation and/or translational blockade. Over 400 microRNAs are currently known to be encoded in the human genome, and each microRNA appears to have the potential to specifically repress tens to hundreds of different target mRNAs. Thus, microRNA::mRNA interactions appear to comprise a complex gene regulatory network that is just beginning to be unraveled. Finally, the discovery of this seemingly pervasive microRNA regulatory network raises very important and even profound questions regarding how miRNAs may shape evolution, both of living organisms over generations and of cancer evolving within an individual.

My lab is interested in understanding microRNA regulatory networks and their role in cancer. Current projects seek to (a) identify the microRNA components of these regulatory networks (there are strong reasons to think that many hundred of microRNAs have not yet been discovered and are therefore missing from our analyses), (b) study the regulation and dysregulation of microRNAs in cancer and in normal developmental processes relevant to cancer and (c) develop approaches to identify the targets regulated by microRNAs, in order to comprehensively map microRNA regulatory networks and eventually study their dynamics.