DETROIT - Wayne State University School of Medicine researcher Leonard Lipovich, Ph.D., made university history as the lead organizer of a special Theo Murphy international scientific meeting of the Royal Society, held Sept. 28-29 at Chicheley Hall, home of the Kavli Royal Society Centre, in Buckinghamshire, England.
Lipovich, an associate professor of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics and of the Department of Neurology, is the only Wayne State faculty member ever selected by the Society to chair one of its international meetings. The society is a fellowship and independent scientific academy of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth dedicated to promoting excellence in science. Fellows of the Royal Society include many of the world's most preeminent scientists. It is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, having been founded by a Royal decree in the 17th century.
"I think this speaks to the quality and novelty of Lipovich's work and also speaks to our center's ability to attract such talented individuals," said CMMG Director Lawrence Grossman, Ph.D.
The meeting, "Long non-coding RNAs: evolution of new epigenetic and post-transcriptional functions," consisted of 19 talks during two days, covering a variety of topics, including: genomic cartography of the lncRNA world; nuclear and cytoplasmic lncRNA functions; structural biology of the lncRNAome; and non-conserved lncRNA roles in species uniqueness and disease. The discussions promoted additional understanding of how lncRNAs contribute to species uniqueness and human disease. In addition to its co-organizers and speakers, the exclusive invitation-only meeting had a roster of 70 invited audience guests, 17 of whom will present posters in two poster sessions.
Long non-coding ribonucleic acid, or lncRNA, molecules are abundant in human cells, have been discovered by emerging new post-genomic methodologies, and remain poorly understood. Long non-coding RNA genes often lack sequence conservation even between closely related species, in contrast to protein-coding genes, which are highly conserved across distant evolutionary lineages. In the past several years, the Lipovich lab has been highlighting the primate-specificity of lncRNAs in diverse disease systems.
"The goal of this meeting is to make an advance in our understanding how, specifically, lncRNAs, including especially those unique to primates, cause human disease at a mechanistic level, and to yield insights conducive to developing therapeutics for such diseases in the future," Lipovich said. "In 2013, I proposed the meeting, and, along with two United States co-chairs and two U.K. sponsors, who are Fellows of the Royal Society and also co-chairs, underwent a long and rigorous application review process, which resulted in the society selecting this meeting for funding."
His co-organizers were Harvard University Professor John Rinn, Ph.D.; University of Oxford Professors Nicolas Proudfoot, F.R.S., and Douglas Higgs, F.R.S.; and University of Rochester Medical Center Professor Lynne Maquat, Ph.D.
The meeting is the second on non-coding RNA the Society has hosted in its 350-year history.
It is the second international meeting that Lipovich has organized and led in 2015 - a Colorado Keystone Symposium on lncRNAs sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and several post-genomic pharmaceutical companies took place in March.
"This is indeed a proud moment for the Department of Neurology, the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics and Wayne State University," said Neurology Professor and Chair Omar Khan, M.D.
Lipovich has a history of generating firsts at WSU. In October 2014, he became the first WSU faculty member to receive the National Institutes of Health's coveted Director's New Innovator Award, a five-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute he is using to test a hypothesis that could lead to breakthrough methodologies to improve human health.
The Detroit resident is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in New York City, and received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1998, his doctorate from the University of Washington in 2003, and joined the School of Medicine faculty in 2007, working to build an internationally visible, high-profile research program.
Since 2011, Lipovich has been a co-investigator of ENCODE, or Encyclopedia of DNA Elements, the international consortium that serves as the official successor to the original Human Genome Project. He is in his second decade of working with the Japan-based Functional Annotation of the Mammalian Genome, or FANTOM, project, and in 2014 he joined the CHARGE, or Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology, Consortium, singlehandedly bringing all these major international efforts to Wayne State through his laboratory.
About the Royal Society
The Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world's most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering, and medicine. The Society's fundamental purpose, reflected in its founding Charters of the 1660s, is to recognize, promote and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity. For more information, visit http://royalsociety.org.
About Wayne State University School of Medicine
Founded in 1868, the Wayne State University School of Medicine educates more than 1,000 medical students in Midtown Detroit. In addition to undergraduate medical education, the school offers master's degree, Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. programs in 14 areas of basic science to about 400 students annually.
Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 27,000 students.