Proper tissue homeostasis and regeneration are critical to maintain normal body functions
during life span. Defects in these processes accumulate over time resulting in a decline in
body fitness, which is widely referred to as aging. While several physiological and
environmental factors have been described to trigger and accelerate these degenerative
processes, little is known about how these events are controlled at the cellular and molecular
level. In this project, we will study the role of a novel class of genes, called noncoding RNAs,
in mammalian tissue regeneration. In contrast to the known approximately 20,000 classical
protein-coding genes, noncoding RNAs do not encode functional proteins, such as enzymes
or receptors. Instead, they directly act as RNA molecules performing various molecular and
physiological functions in a cell. Interestingly, for most of the tens of thousands human
noncoding RNAs the precise biological functions are still unknown. Using modern molecular
biology as well as next-generation sequencing technologies in combination with suitable
mouse and cell models, we will investigate the molecular and physiological role of a recently
identified and particularly interesting noncoding RNA in tissue regeneration and aging. We
expect that this study will demonstrate an unprecedented role of a novel noncoding RNA in
mammalian aging and pave the way for future investigations into its broader role in
regenerative medicine.