A new European research network about the role of RNA translation in cancer biology was funded by the COST agency for five years starting in October 2022. It is called TRANSLACORE (COST network number CA21154) for “Translational control in Cancer”. Its COST “Action” webpage is here. You will find details about this action and its “Memorandum of Understanding". The action is coordinated by Dr Jean-Jacques Diaz from Lyon and Dr Fatima Gebauer from Barcelona, and organized in 5 Working Groups.
The TRANSLACORE Action keywords include:
- Translational control
- RNA biology
- Therapeutic RNA
- Cancer biology
- Ribosome
- Epitranscriptomics (i.e., the set of chemical epigenetic modifications of nucleosides in RNA)
The goal of this action is to promote discussion about RNA translation and its role in cancer across Europe and to foster the research community. Currently, participants come from 29 European countries! You can participate and apply on the Action webpage.
The group of Dr Luisa Romao recently organized the first meeting in Lisbon (March 21-22, 2023), which attracted about 70-80 participants (with a good gender balance – see the group photo). The first day was dedicated scientific presentations and provided a sample of active research questions in this developing field. Many studies exploits deep sequencing data on translated RNAs, and clearly, bioinformatics has a key role to leverage this sequencing effort.
Dr Erik Dassi (from Trento Univ. Italy) and myself lead the Working Group 3 entitled “Bioinformatics”. The results of a survey among members of the action indicates a huge need for training in bioinformatics, and also for developing analysis standards.
Besides the online and in person meetings, a COST action funds research visits (called STSM in COST vocabulary) in the participants’ labs and also training events. The development of TRANSLACORE website is on its way.