Eva Maria Novoa from the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Spain presented at London Calling 2025 on “Decoding the epitranscriptome at single-molecule resolution: towards clinical applications.” Novoa spoke about ribosomal RNA modifications. They study ribosomal RNA modifications. There are more than 12 modifications in rRNA. The new generation of algorithms allows the detection of more modifications. Novoa and team have studied mammalian rRNA modifications across different tissues and developmental stages. The team found that modifications are different across tissues and developmental stages. The sites were validated with a chemical approach. Next, the team chose four different tissues for normal and tumor samples. Direct RNA sequencing identified distinct rRNA modifications between sample types. The Random Forest classifier needed only 250 reads per sample to identify sample type. Since low input amounts of patient-derived samples is a challenge, the team has developed a multiplexing approach. To address issues with implementation, the team has developed an analysis-while-sequencing tool. Novoa noted the clinical implications of this promising work.
