This article considers the state of the RNA field and how it has progressed over a time span of decades

Sontheimer, Erik J.

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University of Massachusetts Medical School eScholarship@UMMS RNA Therapeutics Institute Publications RNA Therapeutics Institute 2015-04-01 Accelerating expansion Erik J. Sontheimer University of Massachusetts Medical School Let us know how access to this document benefits you. Follow this and additional works at: https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/rti_pubs  Part of the Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons, Cell and Developmental Biology Commons, Genetics and Genomics Commons, and the Therapeutics Commons Repository Citation Sontheimer EJ. (2015). Accelerating expansion. RNA Therapeutics Institute Publications. https://doi.org/10.1261/rna.050682.115. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/rti_pubs/25 Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License This material is brought to you by eScholarship@UMMS. It has been accepted for inclusion in RNA Therapeutics Institute Publications by an authorized administrator of eScholarship@UMMS. For more information, please contact Lisa.Palmer@umassmed.edu. Accelerating expansionERIK SONTHEIMERRNA Therapeutics Institute, Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, USAGiven the day-to-day demands and busy-ness of scientific re-search and academic life, it is all too easy to forget the benefitsof stepping back from time to time to consider the state ofour chosen field and how it has progressed over a timespan of decades. When I first received Tim Nilsen’s requestfor this piece—which at first I reflexively added to my mentalledger of day-to-day demands!—I did not realize how satisfy-ing it would be to consider howmuch we have learned acrossthe entire expanse of the RNA field.I write as someone who, as of the publication of RNA’sinaugural issue in March 1995, was still in the early phasesof postdoctoral research. It felt to me then, given all of theRNA science that I had just been taught as a graduate stu-dent, like we knew a lot. And I suppose that in some wayswe did! But when considering the universe of RNAs thatwere unknown or barely glimpsed at that time, and the cel-lular roles that they fill and the mechanisms that theyemploy, it’s obvious that I had no idea. The first (and, inMarch 1995, still the only) microRNA had recently been re-vealed, and we knew essentially nothing of siRNAs, piRNAs,lncRNAs, crRNAs, circRNAs, etc., etc., etc. And of course,even our established friends (e.g., tRNAs, mRNAs, rRNAs,snRNAs, snoRNAs) had many, many sides to their person-alities that they had not yet disclosed. Only a tiny smatteringof bacterial and archaeal genome sequences were in hand,the number of complete eukaryotic genome sequences wasprecisely zero, and RNA molecules were still nearly alwaysidentified and sequenced one at a time. As the readers ofthis journal know well, today the situation is…um…differ-ent. And as the accelerating expansion of the RNA universeproceeds, so do the opportunities for mechanistic insight,methodological advancement, and disease treatment. Ithas been a joy to see so much of it play out in this, the jour-nal of the RNA Society. For so many of us, this Society, itsannual meeting, and its journal are truly an intellectualhome.Although it would be easy and natural to consider the past20 years from a triumphalist vantage point, a healthier pos-ture would be one of humility. Once again, it is easy to feellike we know a tremendous amount. But once again it issafe to assume that our 2015 understanding of the RNAworldwill look far more meager (or so we should hope!) when wewrite our 2035 retrospectives. Given the momentum thatTim has helped us all build up over the last 20 years, I trustthat we will again get the opportunity to write those retro-spectives in the pages of RNA.Corresponding author: erik.sontheimer@umassmed.eduArticle and publication date are at http://www.rnajournal.org/cgi/doi/10.1261/rna.050682.115. Freely available online through the RNA OpenAccess option.© 2015 Sontheimer This article, published in RNA, is available under aCreative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Internation-al), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.510 RNA 21:510; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the RNA Society Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press on May 24, 2018 - Published by rnajournal.cshlp.orgDownloaded from  2015 21: 510 RNA  Erik Sontheimer  Accelerating expansion  Open Access   Open Access option.RNAFreely available online through the   LicenseCommons Creative.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/(Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at , is available under a Creative Commons LicenseRNAThis article, published in ServiceEmail Alerting   click here.top right corner of the article or Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article - sign up in the box at the http://rnajournal.cshlp.org/subscriptions go to: RNATo subscribe to © 2015 Sontheimer; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the RNA Society Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press on May 24, 2018 - Published by rnajournal.cshlp.orgDownloaded from 

Accelerating expansion

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Accelerating expansion

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