Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Bo-Han Hou

Bo-Han Hou, co-first author of Widespread Exon Junction Complex Footprints in the RNA Degradome Mark mRNA Degradation Before Steady-state Translation

Current Position: research assistant, Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Education: Bachelor of Nutritional Science, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan

Non-scientific Interests: hiking, Computer Aid Graphic Design

Brief bio: I like to solve any computer-related problems on my own. The process of exploration and problem solving gives me a sense of accomplishment. So I became interested in information and computer science. On the other hand, when I was a student, I was fascinated by biological knowledge. After working in Taipei City Dietitian Association for one year, I joined Dr. Ho-Ming Chen’s group as a research assistant and began to learn the analysis of next-generation sequencing data. I enjoy exploring the unknown in my work and building new tools for NGS data analysis. In this study, we reported the common and predominant RNA decay signals, EJC footprints, upstream the exon-exon junction of four evolutionarily distant species. Also, we demonstrated the use of EJC footprints in the studies of NMD and miRNA regulation during or before the pioneer round of translation. Now, I am developing a fast and interactive tool for RNA Degradome data visualization and analysis. I hope that our work can help to reveal new insights into post-transcriptional gene regulations.