Genetics and functional genomics of genes with small open reading frames

We are major contributors to the growing realization that hundreds of thousands of small ORFs (smORFs) of 10 to 100 amino-acids (aa) exist in every metazoan genome; that thousands of smORFs are translated; and that smORF peptides can have important functions and be widely conserved across metazoans. We are one of the few groups worldwide that can apply functional genomics to the study of smORFs, due to our expertise in functional genetic analysis, bioinformatics, and ribosomal profiling. Our aim is not only to understand and predict the function of individual smORFs, but of smORFs as a whole, as a new class of genes in the genome. Our approach is based on a multidisciplinary feedback between these three areas of research: -Biochemical detection of translated smORFs and their resulting peptides -Genetic analysis -Bioinformatic prediction and analysis