BioE Seminar Series Presents: Ryan Flynn

Department of Bioengineering Seminar Series presents 

Ryan Flynn, Ph.D 

Assistant Professor, Boston Children’s Hospital’s Stem Cell Program and Harvard University’s Stem Cell and  Regenerative Biology Department, Boston MA

“GlycoRNAs: bridging the gap between glycobiology and RNA biology” 

 Wednesday, November 16th, 2022
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
105 Shillman Hall 

ABSTRACT:   

Glycans modify lipids and proteins to mediate inter- and intramolecular interactions across all domains of life. RNA is not thought to be a major target of glycosylation. Here, we challenge this view with evidence that mammals use RNA as a third scaffold for glycosylation. Using chemical and biochemical approaches, we found that conserved small noncoding RNAs bear sialylated glycans. These ‘‘glycoRNAs’’ were present in multiple cell types and mammalian species, in cultured cells, and in vivo. GlycoRNA assembly depends on canonical N-glycan biosynthetic machinery and results in structures enriched in sialic acid and fucose. Analysis of living cells revealed that the majority of glycoRNAs were present on the cell surface and can interact with anti-dsRNA antibodies and members of the Siglec receptor family. New insights into the molecular nature of glycoRNAs will be presented, which help to solidify the existence of a direct interface between RNA biology and glycobiology, and an expanded role for RNA in extracellular biology.

BIO:  

Ryan is a New Jersey native who completed his undergraduate training at MIT, where he worked in the lab of Phillip Sharp on small noncoding RNA biology. Subsequently, he moved to Stanford where he completed his M.D. and Ph.D. with Howard Chang developing methods to study RNA-protein interactions. From this work, he won the Weintraub Graduate Student Award. As a post-doc, he changed fields to learn both chemistry and glycobiology with Carolyn Bertozzi at Stanford as a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Postdoctoral Fellow. At the beginning of 2021, the Flynn Lab opened at Boston Children’s Hospital in the Stem Cell Program and the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. The Flynn Lab is currently focused on advancing methods and mechanisms surrounding the glycoRNA molecule, which operates at the interface of RNA biology and the secretory pathway.