About us

The laboratory is led by Dr. Leandro Castellano, which scope is to identify and mechanistically characterise novel non-coding RNAs, including microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) important for cancer development and metastasis. To do so, we use cancer specimens and cell lines where we apply NGS technologies, such as RNA-Seq, ChIP-Seq, CLIP-seq, CHART-seq, ATAC-Seq and ribosome profiling or Ribo-Seq. Also, we apply pre-designed and custom-designed CRISPR-Cas9 genome-scale screening approaches along with biochemical and molecular biology techniques.

In summary, we aim to further understand the role of the non-coding genome in these deadly diseases in order to ultimately develop novel non-coding RNA based approaches for cancer treatment.

Our group is based in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedicine, School of Life Sciences. We are part of the RNA biology Group at Sussex which is a network of seven laboratory based in Brighton and Sussex Medical School and Life Sciences, University of Sussex. The group shares ideas and work together to better understand RNA biology and to use RNA as biomarker and therapeutic target in diseases.