NOCODING-TRAIN

The NOCODING-TRAIN consortium I am building aims at applying to the Innovative Training Networks (ITN) for European Training Networks (ETN) of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) in January 2021. We will ask 540 person-months for a final budget of about 4.5 M Euros, which will be used to train 15 Ph.D. students in ten different European Institutions. To date, the consortium includes five partners coming from different European countries and Israel. I will look for five more partners having diverse experimental angles of ncRNA field to complete our multidisciplinary aspect. I will coordinate this project. Scientific project. Our project will focus on the emerging field of the noncoding transcripts. The recent discovery of the pervasive transcription of the noncoding regions of the eukaryotic genome has had a major impact on our understanding of gene expression regulation. In fact, noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) originating from these regions are emerging as fundamental regulators of gene expression in both normal and pathological aspects of physiology, and act at multiple layers with effects on chromatin modifications, transcription, and RNA processing, turnover or translational rate. The ncRNAs use a wide variety of mechanisms to regulate gene expression programs in cells. The NOCODING-TRAIN consortium aims at applying to the MSCA-ITN grant by gathering teams working on different areas of ncRNA research field to train novel generations of scientists in this emerging field. Our training will focus on the control of the small and long ncRNA expression and their mode of action to regulate gene expression in eukaryotic cells during developmental, physiological, and pathological events. The NOCODING-TRAIN project is organized into 5 main axes, built on existing research forces and collaborative work from partners to address the following specific questions: 1. The molecular mechanisms regulating the expression of ncRNAs, with focus on biogenesis and turnover. 2. The cellular and subcellular heterogeneity of ncRNAs mode of action to regulate gene expression through epigenetic, transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms. 3. ncRNAs in the pathogenesis of wide-spread human diseases, including the inheritance, onset and progression of cancer and cardiometabolic disorders. 4. Computational modeling of the expression control and mode of action of ncRNAs. 5. Economic valorization of the ncRNA research for therapeutic, diagnostic and prognostic improvement of human pathologies. Educational project. Attracting outstanding students represents a major challenge and a condition for high standard research. I propose an international Ph.D. training program, in which the experimental work in the laboratories will be coupled with training classes held by local as well as external experts in biology, bioinformatics, and biostatistics, but also in other disciplines including informatics, statistics, artificial intelligence scientific integrity, and scientific English classes. Workshops will be also organized twice a year to provide a stage to discuss individual Ph.D. student research projects and foster exchange between the laboratories. Providing interdisciplinary training is crucial to widen the technological and conceptual toolkit of young researchers, and a condition for innovative research in gene expression. According to the expertise of each partner of the consortium, we will provide specific experimental training. If successful, the MRSEI grant will be used to attend three scientific meetings to meet scientists in the different fields of ncRNA research, who can reinforce the multidisciplinary aspect of the consortium. I will organize 1 two-days symposium and 2 one-day round-table meetings with all proposed partners in Nice. I will use the MRSEI grant to make a website of the proposed training program, which will be accessible to the MSCA-ITN Reviewers, and publicly available only if our application will be successful.