What am I researching in the lab?

As a PhD student working in a lab, I am studying "microRNA function during aging in Caenorhabditis elegans". But what does any of that mean?? Let's break it down:

microRNA = 

-type of gene that is found in humans and also found in many other animals we study in the lab, as well as plants

-these genes are non-coding RNAs because they do not follow the "central dogma" of molecular biology, which is that DNA makes RNA makes protein. Instead, these genes make RNA, but then the RNA never codes for a protein. Instead, this RNA, which is short in length and why it is specifically called microRNA, binds to other coding RNAs and causes degradation of these RNAs and/or prevents these RNAs from coding protein. 

-as molecular biologists have thought for a long time that RNA is only an "intermediary" and has no functional role, the discovery of these microRNAs with a regulatory function was very exciting and opened up a whole new field of research. Humans have over 1000 microRNAs, so there is a lot to study regarding in which cells/tissues the microRNAs are expressed and which coding RNAs they target!

aging = 

-the biological process for how living things "get old"

-many different types of genes are involved in controlling aging, including microRNAs, which shows that aging is a programmed process and not just a random occurrence

-I am interested in studying microRNAs and aging to learn how we can promote healthy aging by preserving youthful genetic features

Caenorhabditis elegans = C. elegans = 

-the model organism I am using to study the process of aging, as it is much too difficult to study human aging because we live for so many years!

-C. elegans is a simple animal, called a nematode or roundworm. It only lives for 2-3 weeks, which makes it very easy to study aging of C. elegans in the lab and conduct many experiments

-C. elegans also has microRNAs (~150), many of which have homologous sequences to human microRNAs, so I am interested in studying how these microRNAs affect C. elegans aging: in which tissues and when are the microRNAs expressed? what happens to the worm's lifespan when you get rid of the microRNA? 

So, I can learn about how C. elegans microRNAs affect its aging processes and extrapolate how the microRNAs may work in humans! To conduct actual human studies, scientists have set up longitudinal aging studies to follow study participants over many years; a small blood sample that you would provide at a routine doctor's visit could also be used to look at the function of all of your genes at the time the blood sample was taken using various lab technologies.