Söding lab is offering an internship opportunity at MPI-NAT on RNA immunogenicity and computational genome/transcriptome analysis, combining large-scale data analysis with machine learning.
Project description:
For new types of gene and cancer therapy based on RNAs delivered to target cells, it is critical
to understand why some constructs are highly immunogenic and others are not.
Exogeneous RNAs in the cytosol are recognized by the very important innate immune receptors
RIG-I and MDA5, expressed ubiquitously in every human cell. MDA5 is responsible for long
perfectly base-paired dsRNA, while RIG-I is responsible for the rest. So, the project’s goal is
to better understand which RNA local structures RIG-I recognizes (apart from its canonical
blunt-ended dsRNA ligand with 5’ppp end) and how it ignores self mRNAs.
It is known that recognition of RIG-I of defective replication products during viral genome
replication depends strongly on features other than this canonical motif (see this preprint). But
what are these features? Very little is known about it, despite the high relevance to understanding
the immune system and to designing RNA-based therapies.
The project will involve a large-scale comparative genome/transcriptome analysis of various
species involving statistical and machine learning based analysis of the data.
Starting date:
As soon as possible; a start in July is also possible.
Contact:
Johannes Söding: soeding@mpinat.mpg.de
Hari Radhakrishnan: radhakrishnan.harikrishnan@mpinat.mpg.de