def str_to_seconds(s):
    return int((pd.Timestamp(s, tz='UTC') - EPOCH).total_seconds())
get transcripts for list of genes.
dataset/ETHPy150Open quantopian/zipline/zipline/testing/core.py/str_to_seconds--crossover with--dataset/ETHPy150Open CGATOxford/cgat/scripts/diff_transcript_sets.py/getTranscriptsForGenes