Ling-Ling Chen carried out doctoral and post-doctoral work in Biomedical Science at UConn Health, USA with Gordon G. Carmichael from 2004 and 2010. She also completed an MBA degree in Management at the UConn Business School in 2009 and was promoted to Assistant Professor in Residence at UConn in 2010. Chen moved to the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences as an independent PI in 2011 and was promoted to Senior PI in 2017. She was selected as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Research Scholar in 2017.

Chen primarily studies long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), a giant class of RNA molecules that are emerging as important regulators in gene expression networks. Her group has pioneered methods for studying non-polyadenylated RNAs and discovered widespread expressed snoRNA-related lncRNAs and circular RNAs. In addition to the characterization of their unusual biogenesis pathways, her group discovered that some sno-lncRNAs are conspicuously absent from patients with Prader-Willi Syndrome and circular RNAs are involved in innate immunity regulation and related to the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus. Her group now continues efforts to elucidate the biogenesis and function of these unconventional regulatory RNAs in different cellular contexts and in relevant human diseases.

Chen serves the community as Editorial Boards of several journals: Genome Biol, Mobile DNA, RNA, RNA Biol, Transcription and Trends Genet; and as an organizer including CSHA on RNA Biology (2018/2020) the Annual Meeting of the RNA Society (2020), CSHL on Regulatory RNA (2020) and Keystone Symposium on Noncoding RNAs (2021). She is the recipient of several awards including being named as a Chinese Biological Investigators Society (CBIS) Young Investigator, an Asian-Pacific Molecular Biology Network (A-IMBN) Research Young Investigator, and the L’OREAL China for Women in Science and Young Investigator Award of CAS.

Linking circular RNA processing and function

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as new regulators in gene expression networks and exhibit a surprising range of shapes and sizes.  Many lncRNAs are transcribed by RNA polymerase II and are capped, polyadenylated, and spliced like mRNAs.  By developing methods for genome-wide discovery and characterization of non-polyadenylated RNAs, we have identified several RNA species with unexpected formats.  These RNAs are derived from long primary transcripts via unusual RNA processing pathways and are stabilized by different mechanisms, including capping by small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA)–protein (snoRNP) complexes at their ends or forming circular structures.  We have shown that some such RNAs are involved in gene regulation and implicated in human diseases such as Prader-Willi Syndrome and the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus. 

I will discuss our most recent findings on the biogenesis, function and potential application of one type of circular RNAs that is produced by pre-RNA back-splicing of exons of thousands of genes in eukaryotes.