Renne Lab Graduate student, Yuan Hong, has been featured in a YouTube video created by the UF Genetics & Genomics Graduate Program! In the video, Yuan discusses the use of genetics, genomics, and ribonomics approaches in her research in the lab. Great job, Yuan! 

​Lauren and Yuan volunteered to judge at the Alachua Region Science and Engineering Fair on Thursday, Feb. 7. The regional fair consisted of approximately 170 projects from middle and high school students who attend public, private, and charter schools in Alachua county.

Members of the Flemington, Renne, and Tibbetts labs co-authored a paper on circular RNAs entitled, "Comparative analysis of gammaherpesvirus circRNA repertoires: conserved and unique viral circRNAs". Despite the importance of non-coding RNAs in persistent infection, the circRNA class of non-coding RNAs has only recently been identified in gammaherpesviruses. Accordingly, their roles in virus infection and associated oncogenesis are unknown. Here we report evolutionary conservation of EBV encoded circRNAs by assessing the circRNAome in rLCV infected lymphomas from an SIV infected rhesus macaque and we report latent and lytic circRNAs from KSHV and MHV68. These experiments demonstrate utilization of the circular RNA class of RNAs across 4 members of the gammaherpesvirus subfamily and they identify orthologs and potential homoplastic circRNAs, implying conserved circRNA functions in virus biology and associated malignancies.

To read the full publication, click here. 

Congratulations to Jackie Serfecz on the completion of her PhD! Dr. Renne was happy to escort Jackie at her graduation ceremony, but we will all be sad to see her go! Jackie and her fiancee will be relocating to Maryland. 

We celebrated earlier that week with a lab lunch downtown. We wish Jackie the best in her new journey!