Short RNA regulators: the past, the present, the future, and implications for precision medicine and health disparities

Abstract

We herein provide a brief review of the trajectory that the field of short RNA research followed in the last 25 years. We place emphasis on the unexpected discoveries and the ramifications of these discoveries for the field, as well as offer some thoughts about what the next 25 years may bring. Arguably, the uncovered dependence of different types of short RNAs on individual attributes such as a person's sex, population origin, race, and on tissue type, tissue state, and disease was most unexpected. This dependence has important ramifications in that it will provide a boost to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of health disparities as well as pave the way for novel approaches to designing improved and personalized diagnostics and therapeutics.