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microRNA Symposium
Agenda
Chaired by Reuven Agami, Associate Professor, Netherlands Cancer Institute

19 September

09:30	Biology of MicroRNAs
09:35	Contribution of 3’ UTR Features to the Functionality of miRNA Target Sites Mihaela Zavolan, Professor, University of Basel Based on analyses of predicted miRNA target sites and siRNA off-target sites, we dissected the contribution of overall properties of 3' UTRs, and of the relative location, local sequence and structure environment of the target sites to the functionality of these sites.
10:05	microRNAs in Animal Development and Human Cancer Eric Miska, Cancer Research UK Senior Fellow, Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute and Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge Generation and analysis of loss-of-function mutations in most known miRNA genes in C. elegans and possible new roles for certain miRNAs in C. elegans embryogenesis and larval development will be presented as model of a comprehensive analysis of miRNA function in any organism.
10:35	microRNA Expression Profiling, Inhibition and High Content Screens Stephanie Urschel, Field Application Scientist Europe, Thermo Fisher Scientific To explore miRNA function and regulatory pathways, robust tools for miRNA expression profiling, inhibition and rescue of miRNA activity and phenotypic screening are essential. The development, optimization and prudent use of these tools to understand miRNA function will be explored.
11:05	Coffee Break
11:35	What Can miRNAs Tell Us About Cancer? Aimee Jackson, Senior Research Biologist/Research Fellow, Merck & Co Inc/Rosetta Inpharmatics LLC Microarray profiling and functional screening was used to identify targets and biological processes triggered by transfection of miRNAs into human cells. The characterization of a miRNA that coordinately regulates targets that act in concert to control cell cycle progression will be presented.
12:05	RNA-Mediated Non-Mendelian Inheritance of Epigenetic Variations in the Mouse Minoo Rassoulzadegan, Director Unit 636, INSERM, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis Known as paramutation and extensively studied in plants, hereditary epigenetic variation was only recently reported in the mouse. A mutant phenotype of the kit locus “White spotting” is induced in a wild type genotype with RNA molecules.
12:35	Lunch Compliments of Qiagen
13:30	MicroRNAs in Cancer
13.35	Functional Genetic Approaches Identify Cancerous miRNAs Reuven Agami, Associate Professor, Netherlands Cancer Institute Evidence will be provided on recently identified miRNAs as being potential novel oncogenes participating in the development of human testicular germ cell tumours by numbing the p53 pathway, thus allowing tumourigenic growth in the presence of wild type p53.
14:05	Toward a microRNA Revolution in the Cancer Society George Calin, Associate Professor, University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Centre Alterations in miRNA genes play a critical role in the pathophysiology of many, perhaps all, human cancer: cancer initiation and progression can involve microRNAs (miRNAs) - small non-coding RNAs that can regulate gene expression.
14:35	Coffee Break
15:05	The Cell Cycle Inhibitor p27^kip1 is a Target of miR-221 and miR-222 in Prostate Carcinoma Cell Lines Silvia Anna Ciafrè, Associate Professor, University of Rome Tor Vergata A causative inverse correlation between miR-221/222 expression will be presented, as well as the cell cycle inhibitor p27kip1 in prostate carcinoma, linking the expression of these two microRNAs to some key aspects of tumourigenesis, such as proliferation, cell cycle progression and clonogenicity.
15:35	microRNA Expression in Gastrointestinal Cancer: Potential Implication in Clinical Research Jesús García-Foncillas, Director, Department of Oncology and Pharmacogenomics Laboratory, University of Navarra Real-Time PCR determined the profile of mature miRNA associated in paraffin-embedded samples of colorectal and gastric cancer. Results suggest that miRNA expression profile could have relevance regarding the biological and clinical behaviour of these neoplastic diseases.
16:05	Close of Symposium