Project Grant R01CA297834

The University of California Irvine (UC Irvine) was awarded a $667,379 Project Grant (R01CA297834) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under the Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395) to conduct research on decoding the mechanisms of polyadenylation and its role in health and disease. The project aims to expand the "poly(A) code" to understand how poly(A) site sequence determines mRNA 3' processing efficiency and drug sensitivity, with the goal of identifying disease-causing genetic variants and developing novel anti-cancer therapies. The research will leverage massively parallel reporter assays and machine learning techniques to study the interplay between polyadenylation sequences, processing efficiency, and drug response. Successful completion of the proposed 5-year study is expected to improve fundamental understanding of gene regulation and facilitate the discovery of disease-associated genetic variations.