Long noncoding RNAs in epigenetic programming – The general interest of the Sun laboratory is to understand how a living cell controls its genetic and epigenetic composition. The main focus of our research involves the functional roles of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in epigenetic programming. Increasing evidence from large-scale transcriptome sequencing projects suggests a high abundance of lncRNAs present in human genome and potentially significant roles of lncRNAs in various aspects of biological processes. The research projects in our lab will address the following three questions: 1) What are molecular features required for lncRNA function? 2) What are the mechanisms for lncRNA regulation? 3) How have lncRNA functions evolved?