Rytis defended his PhD in Biology in 2023 at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. During his PhD studies, Rytis focused on small RNAs and their role in human pathologies:
• In of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences he worked on detecting micro RNAs in blood serum, and post-surgical tissues of glioma patients.
• During his 9-month stay at at Copenhagen University Hospital, Rytis analysed Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) to identify their role in male infertility.
• During his 11-month stay at at Oregon Health & Science University, Rytis worked on mice and human infertility applying small RNA-seq and single-cell RNA-seq methods.
After obtaining his PhD, Rytis started to expand his genetic background by researching into epitranscriptomic changes in human brain cancer. He explored the m6A RNA modifications by applying Oxford Nanopore Technologies’ direct RNA-seq approach.
Now, Rytis is a part of the Aramburu lab at Umeå University where he is combining Ribo-seq and protein-seq data to identify small Open Reading Frames, and their encoded microproteins.