Chen Lab

Research focus

NIH R01 · 2025

Sperm tsRNAs/rsRNAs and their RNA modifications in diet-induced epigenetic inheritance

Project summary: Increasing lines of evidence in mammals have shown that certain acquired traits during paternal environmental exposure (e.g., unhealthy diet) can be “memorized” in sperm and transmitted to the future generations without altering the DNA sequence. Our research seeks to unravel the epigenetic mechanisms by which paternal environmental factors, like diet, are encoded in sperm RNA and influence offspring health. Building on our discovery of tRNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) and rRNA-derived small RNAs (rsRNAs) in sperm and their role in intergenerational inheritance, we have raised the concept of 'sperm RNA code'—an RNA expression/modification signature—that is sensitive to…

From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.