Dr. Londin is interested in the characterization of and role of microRNAs (miRNA) in the human diseases. MiRNAs are short ~22 nt RNAs that are typically derived from endogenous hairpin transcripts.  miRNAs interact with targeted RNAs in a sequence dependent manner to post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression either by translation inhibition, exonuclease-mediated mRNA degradation, or disruption of cap-tail interactions. We are working to address several key questions regarding miRNAs: (i) how many miRNAs are present in the genome, (ii) what is the composition of the miRNAs (iii) what genes do the miRNAs target, and (iv) what is the role of miRNAs in human disease? To address these questions, we are using a combination of computational and molecular biology techniques.