What I really keyed in on for the talk was that in some cases sequence means less than structure. lincRNAs (and other non-coding forms of RNA) form secondary structures and a lot of great bioinformatic work has been done to predict this aspect of RNAs. Some of Dr. Chang's work, however, also shows that only a few key residues are important to the apparent function of these lincRNAs. It poses a very interesting quandary in that a classic bioinformatic approach to finding important segments of the genome includes using sequence similarity. lincRNAs, on the other hand, could be liberated (to some degree) from these specific similarity restrictions so just comparing sequence between say zebrafish and human genomes to find these features won't necessarily be fruitful. In other words, discovering functional aspects of lincRNAs will require investigators to hunt "function orthologs" by more than just sequence similarity! Don't quote me on this, of course, but go check it out for yourself!
/end of nerdy thought
In other news, a neighbourhood church is helping to run a mobile clinic. I don't know exactly who or where they'll be going around to but I truly hope they can bring help to those in need.
Today I also learned that British Columbia does not have an official provincial police force. Well, they used to up until the 1950's but then it was replaced by the RCMP. I was used to seeing the OPP here and there in Ontario (always more often in rural areas). I think I only ever really saw Mounties at parades and special events, but I've been told by my new labmate that they run the show in BC. Kinda cool! Let's hope they can figure out what really happened at the border the other day.
/end of Canadian thought
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