2 October 2024
Professor Archa Fox recently visited the Malaghan Institute from the University of Western Australia, Perth. She is a recognised leader in RNA biology whose expertise thrust her into the spotlight during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Not many researchers alive today can claim to have found a completely novel part of the cell. Yet, for Prof Fox, this is exactly what she did while undertaking her postdoctoral studies in the early 2000s.
“I didn’t want to get my hopes up at the time, until I’d verified it really was a new structure and not an artefact of the method that I was using,” says Prof Fox.
What Prof Fox had discovered were paraspeckles; structures localised within the cell nucleus that have long non-coding RNA called NEAT1 helping hold them together.
She has since dedicated her research career to understanding the function of these structures, a pursuit that led her into the previously niche field of RNA biology.
RNA comes in many shapes and sizes, fulfilling a myriad of roles throughout the body. Some, like messenger RNA (mRNA), serves as an intermediate between DNA and proteins. Non-coding RNAs, however, are not translated into proteins; instead, they play critical regulatory and functional roles within the cell.
“We’ve found that NEAT1, the long non-coding RNA that holds paraspeckles together, plays a role in helping some types of cancer cells spread,” says Prof Fox.
“Specifically, we found that paraspeckles play a role in cancer metastasis, when cancer spreads from its original site to another site in the body. The paraspeckles seem to help the cancer cells squeeze through tight spaces in tissues to migrate to other parts of the body.”
Prof Fox and her research team are currently exploring whether paraspeckles could serve as a potential target for anti-cancer therapies, particularly in preventing the spread of cancer to other areas of the body, a leading cause of death among cancer patients.
In early 2020, Professor Fox found herself in the spotlight as the world recognised RNA technology as an efficient and effective way to build vaccines amidst a global pandemic. As an established leader in RNA, she was able to provide the expertise and guidance needed at this critical time.
“Suddenly, my niche area of research, which had previously made it challenging to secure grants and funding, became a hot topic of conversation among scientists and broader society.”
Prof Fox is the founding director of the recently established Australian Centre for RNA Therapeutics in Cancer at the University of Western Australia. With extensive experience in RNA biology, she has played a crucial role in bringing together researchers working to apply this cutting-edge technology to the fight against cancer.
“During the Covid-19 pandemic, the world realised what RNA biologists had known for a while: RNA holds much therapeutic potential.”