Future Tech: Almost Here, Round-the-corner Future Technology Podcast

Epigenetics is a mechanism for regulating gene expression, and Professor Upasna Sharma at the University of California, Santa Cruz defines epigenetic inheritance as the inheritance of phenotypic changes in the absence of changes in the underlying DNA. She explains her research by exploring the following: The three primary ways in which gene regulation can take place What function small non-coding RNA play in epigenetic gene regulation and intergenerational inheritance, and how their location in the cell is dependent upon their function within the cell In what ways RNA is more complex than DNA What impact stress, environmental toxins, and diet might play in sperm small RNA and transfer RNA Dr. Sharma is studying the role of small non-coding RNAs in epigenetic inheritance by examining RNA in sperm. How is the environment being signaled to these small RNAs? When do tRNA fragments become abundant in sperm? Through the research she and her team have already done, they’ve found that testicular sperm or g