According to the ENCODE‘s latest update in the human genome there are about 10,000 long sequences of RNA that do not code for any protein. Cedric Notredame’s lab at the Center for genomic Regulation (CRG) tries to detect these molecules not only in humans but also in other species to understand their functionality.

Cedric Notredame explained his research at a conference framed within the IDIBELL seminar series on April 19.

The comparative bioinformatics lab at CRG, led by Notredame, is developing methods for combining evolutionary information with experimental data to detect long noncoding RNA sequences in as many species as possible.

“Our goal,” explained the researcher is to understand under what kind of evolutionary pressure have evolved and evolving long noncoding RNA because we believe this could be a good starting point to understand what their biologic role is.”