ERC Advanced Grant · 2020
Pinpointing novel molecular and cellular functions generated by retroelement onco-exaptation
Exaptation, the co-option of endogenous retroelements (EREs) for new molecular and cellular functions that confer a host fitness advantage, is a major force in evolution, but may also be exploited, through onco-exaptation, by tumour cells to promote the oncogenic process. There are over 4 million well-recognised and annotated individual ERE integrations in the human genome. However, their participation at the level of the more complex transcriptome is far less well understood and, therefore, the number of onco-exaptation events is likely vastly underestimated. To allow detection and quantitation of ERE transcription, we have recently de novo assembled the cancer transcriptome. This resulted…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.