This webinar discussed the relationship between microRNA concentration and target regulation, as well as the biological implications of this association.

MicroRNAs are important regulators of gene expression. More than 800 different microRNAs are encoded in the human genome, and each cell type and even cell state appears to express a unique battery of microRNAs, which are estimated to control over half of the cell’s coding transcriptome.

MicroRNA profiling is now widely used to identify the microRNA complement of a cell, but it is not clear how to interpret microRNA expression as it relates to biology and function. An open question is how microRNA concentration influences target regulation.

In this webinar, Dr. Brian Brown, Associate Professor In the Department of Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discussed emerging data that suggests that only abundantly expressed microRNAs have significant biological activity within a cell, and that even highly expressed microRNAs are subject to post-transcriptional control mechanisms that regulate the activity of the microRNA.

Dr. Brown discussed the implications of this understanding for identifying functionally relevant microRNAs, and for understanding how microRNAs function.