Gregory James Hannon FRS FMedSci (born 1964) is a professor of molecular cancer biology and director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge . He is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge while also serving as a director of cancer genomics at the New York Genome Center and an adjunct professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory .
13-678: Hannon is known for his contributions to small RNA biology, cancer biology, and mammalian genomics . He has a history in discovery of oncogenes , beginning with work that led to the identification of CDK inhibitors and their links to cancer. More recently, his work has focused on small RNA biology, which led to an understanding of the biochemical mechanisms and biological functions of RNA interference (RNAi). He has developed widely used tools and strategies for manipulation of gene expression in mammalian cells and animals and has generated genome-wide short hairpin RNA (shRNA) libraries that are available to
26-468: A range of techniques, including directly by MicroRNA sequencing on several sequencing platforms, or indirectly through genome sequencing and analysis. Identification of miRNAs has been evaluated in detecting human disease, such as breast cancer. Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) miRNA expression has been studied as potential biomarker for different neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease , Multiple sclerosis . Evaluating small RNA
39-470: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Peripheral blood mononuclear cell A peripheral blood mononuclear cell ( PBMC ) is any peripheral blood cell having a round nucleus . These cells consist of lymphocytes ( T cells , B cells , NK cells ) and monocytes , whereas erythrocytes and platelets have no nuclei, and granulocytes ( neutrophils , basophils , and eosinophils ) have multi-lobed nuclei. In humans, lymphocytes make up
52-813: Is useful for certain kinds of study because its molecules "do not need to be fragmented prior to library preparation". Types of small RNA include: The first known function in plants was discovered in mutants of Arabidopsis . Specifically with decline in function mutations for RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and DICER-like production. This impairment actually enhanced Arabidopsis resistance against Heterodera schachtii and Meloidogyne javanica . Similarly, mutants with reduced Argonaute function - ago1-25 , ago1-27 , ago2-1 , and combined mutants with ago1-27 and ago2-1 - had greater resistance to Meloidogyne incognita . Altogether this demonstrates great dependence of nematode parasitism on plants' own small RNAs. This microbiology -related article
65-473: The CC BY 4.0 license. Small RNA Small RNA ( sRNA ) are polymeric RNA molecules that are less than 200 nucleotides in length, and are usually non-coding . RNA silencing is often a function of these molecules, with the most common and well-studied example being RNA interference (RNAi), in which endogenously expressed microRNA (miRNA) or exogenously derived small interfering RNA (siRNA) induces
78-612: The IMAXT team - a team of researchers from Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, the USA and the UK, with far ranging expertise from cancer biology and pathology to astronomy and even VR video game design. The team's aim is to create an interactive 3D map of cancer, which could be explored in virtual reality . The programme could transform the way researchers study cancer by providing unprecedented insight into how individual cells are arranged and how they interact to allow
91-448: The cancer community and was among the first to demonstrate roles for microRNAs in cancer. His laboratory also discovered the piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway and linked this to transposon repression and the protection of germ cell genomes. His innovations include the development of selective re-sequencing strategies, broadly termed exome capture. In 2017, Hannon was awarded a £20 million Cancer Grand Challenges award to unite
104-580: The degradation of complementary messenger RNA . Other classes of small RNA have been identified, including piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) and its subspecies repeat associated small interfering RNA (rasiRNA). Small RNA "is unable to induce RNAi alone, and to accomplish the task it must form the core of the RNA–protein complex termed the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), specifically with Argonaute protein". Small RNA have been detected or sequenced using
117-748: The fields of immunology (including autoimmune disorders), infectious disease , hematological malignancies , vaccine development, transplant immunology , and high-throughput screening are frequent users of PBMCs. In many cases, PBMCs are derived from blood banks . PBMC fraction also contains progenitor populations, as demonstrated by methylcellulose based colony forming assays. PBMCs have been thought to be an important route of vaccination. PBMCs from cancer patients can be extracted and cultured in vitro . Subsequently, PBMCs are challenged with tumor antigens such as tumor stem cell antigen. Inflammatory cytokines are usually added to aid in antigen uptake and recognition by PBMCs. This cell biology article
130-405: The heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .” -- "Terms, conditions and policies | Royal Society" . Archived from the original on 2016-11-11 . Retrieved 2018-06-20 . {{ cite web }} : CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link ) [REDACTED] This article incorporates text available under
143-578: The majority of the PBMC population, followed by monocytes, and only a small percentage of dendritic cells. These cells can be extracted from whole blood using ficoll , a hydrophilic polysaccharide that separates layers of blood, and gradient centrifugation, which will separate the blood into a top layer of plasma, followed by a layer of PBMCs (buffy coat) and a bottom fraction of polymorphonuclear cells (such as neutrophils and eosinophils) and erythrocytes. The polymorphonuclear cells can be further isolated by lysing
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#1733086337399156-626: The red blood cells. Basophils are sometimes found in both the denser and the PBMC fractions. Recent studies indicate that PBMCs may be susceptible to pathogenic infections, such as Ureaplasma parvum and U. urealyticum , Mycoplasma genitalium and M. hominis , and Chlamydia trachomatis infections. PBMCs may be also susceptible to viral infections. Indeed, footprints of JC polyomavirus and Merkel cell polyomavirus have been detected in PBMCs from pregnant women and women affected by spontaneous abortion. Many scientists conducting research in
169-608: The tumour to grow. In 2018, it was announced Prof Hannon would guide the Functional Genomics Centre, a collaboration between Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca . The centre, housed inside the Milner Therapeutics Institute, aims to act as a hub for genetic screens , cancer models, CRISPR tool design, and computational approaches to big data to understand genetic changes in cancer development and identify potential drug targets. “All text published under
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