ptRNA2019 meeting in Porto

This week, Mafalda Galhardo and Nuno Fonseca, our ERA Chair holder, have participated to the VIII Portuguese Meeting: ptRNA2019 that took place at the i3S, Porto, on the 24th and 25th January 2019.

This was a nice opportunity to have scientific discussions about the most recent advances and cutting-edge technologies in RNA, with both established and young scientists from the country, and also leading international guest speakers. Mafalda presented a poster entitled “Small-RNA-seq in non-model organisms: the Antarctic krill example”, in which she presented an analysis of small-RNA sequencing of Antarctic krill, focusing on putative miRNAs conserved between krill and other species which are differentially expressed between larvae (n=4) and 7-year-old krill individuals (n=6), and could therefore be prioritized as biomarker  candidates in larger studies for krill age estimation.

For the team this meeting represented a source of knowledge, current technologies and developments related with the vast world of RNA and transcriptomics. Not only focusing on human research, but also covering the functions and  applications of different RNA classes and RNA-related proteins in other species and different contexts, the meeting provided a good overview of the latest advances in the field, the current challenges and future directions.