Project Reference: TRG27-BIO-RS1

Project title: Developing single-cell-tRNA-sequencing

Project outline

tRNA genes were thought to play house-keeping role and hence were assumed to be expressed ubiquitously in all tissues. Leveraging Pre-T-seq, a new method we developed and patented to quantify tRNA transcription in bulk tissues, we recently found that tRNA genes show surprisingly high degree of tissue-specific expression. We do not understand why tRNA genes behave this way or how they are directed for expression in specific tissues. The PhD project will develop this initial exciting finding in three independent directions: (i) To develop the Pre-T-seq technique with a single-cell resolution; (ii) To understand how tRNA genes are expressed in tissue-specific manner; (ii) To investigate why tRNA genes are expressed in tissue-specific manner. The results of the PhD project will not only provide fundamental understanding of tRNA expression but also lead to new technologies for broad applicability.

Principal Supervisor

Dr Ritwick Sawarkar

Email address: rs2099@cam.ac.uk

Department / Partner Institute: Biochemistry

Website: https://www.mrc-tox.cam.ac.uk/people/ritwick-sawarkar

BBSRC strategic theme

Transformative technologies