Valadkhan lab is interested in elucidating the role of RNA molecules in cellular processes in higher eukaryotes. Indeed, very recent work on human genome indicates that while more than 90% of our genome is transcribed into RNA, only 1% of these sequences are translated into proteins! Thus, a staggering ~99% of the human genomic output consists of RNA molecules that are never translated, but function directly as non-protein-coding RNA molecules. Interestingly, the non-coding RNAs seem to be what differentiates higher eukaryotes from lower eukaryotes, and even us, humans, from other higher eukaryotes!
Clearly, this intriguing discovery indicates that all existing paradigms on cellular function in higher eukaryotes need to be re-evaluated. Our lab is involved in studying the function of RNA molecules in the cell in two main areas: determining the function of human snRNAs, key players in pre-mRNA splicing which are involved in many cancers, neurodegenerative, autoimmune and hereditary diseases, and functional analysis of large non-coding RNAs, which are thought to form a hitherto-unknown, hidden layer of cellular regulation specific to higher eukaryotes.