Active DNA Demethylation and Its Role in Cancer Progression (Kunal Rai)

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we talked with Kunal Rai from MD Anderson Cancer Center about his work on active DNA demethylation and its role in cancer progression.

A major part of the conversation covers his postdoctoral work on active DNA demethylation. He describes how he identified an AID-MBD4-based mechanism, later supported by GAD45, and how this work showed a role for DNA demethylation in early neuronal differentiation and in colon cancer initiation.

We then discuss his move into his own lab and his work on melanoma progression. He explains how he used broad epigenomic profiling, chromatin state analysis, and 3D chromatin methods to study enhancers and chromatin organization, and how these approaches helped reveal changes linked to cancer progression.

Another topic is his work on epigenetic regulators such as RNF2 and KMT2D. He describes findings on polycomb and trithorax-related factors, including tumor-suppressive roles for KMT2D in melanoma and lung cancer, and how KMT2D loss affects cell phenotype and metabolism.

Finally, we talk about lab organization, collaboration, and newer technologies. He says his group works across multiple cancer types and increasingly includes immunology, single-cell methods, spatial epigenomics, and clinical translation, while still using ChIP-seq, CUT&RUN, and CUT&Tag where appropriate.

References

Fiziev, P., Akdemir, K. C., Miller, J. P., Keung, E. Z., Samant, N. S., Sharma, S., Natale, C. A., Terranova, C. J., Maitituoheti, M., Amin, S. B., Martinez-Ledesma, E., Dhamdhere, M., Axelrad, J. B., Shah, A., Cheng, C. S., Mahadeshwar, H., Seth, S., Barton, M. C., Protopopov, A., Tsai, K. Y., … Rai, K. (2017). Systematic Epigenomic Analysis Reveals Chromatin States Associated with Melanoma Progression. Cell reports, 19(4), 875–889. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2017.03.078
Terranova, C. J., Tang, M., Maitituoheti, M., Raman, A. T., Ghosh, A. K., Schulz, J., Amin, S. B., Orouji, E., Tomczak, K., Sarkar, S., Oba, J., Creasy, C., Wu, C. J., Khan, S., Lazcano, R., Wani, K., Singh, A., Barrodia, P., Zhao, D., Chen, K., … Rai, K. (2021). Reprogramming of bivalent chromatin states in NRAS mutant melanoma suggests PRC2 inhibition as a therapeutic strategy. Cell reports, 36(3), 109410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109410

Related Episodes

Contact

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(182)

Statistical Physics Approaches to DNA Methylation and Aging (Steffen Rulands)

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we talked with Steffen Rulands from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich about how methods from statistical physics can be used to study collective ph...

13 Aug 54min

From GAL4 to targeted DAM-ID: Tools for Studying Gene Expression In Vivo (Andrea Brand)

In this episode, we speak with Andrea Brand, Chair of the Department of Cell Biology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute. We discuss her scientific p...

30 Juli 44min

Antibodies, Automation, and the Fight for Reproducibility (Alon Goren)

In this episode we speak with Alon Goren from UC San Diego about his work at the intersection of genomic technology development and chromatin biology. We discuss how his lab studies how the epigenome ...

16 Juli 52min

Long-Term Maintenance of Neuronal Identity (Tomohisa Toda)

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we talked with Tomohisa Toda from the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin about his work on the long-term maintenance of neuronal identity, with a foc...

2 Juli 38min

Enhancer RNAs: Discovery and Function (Tae-Kyung Kim)

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we talked with Tae-Kyung Kim from POSTECH in South Korea about the discovery and characterisation of enhancer RNAs. Dr. Kim describes joining Danny Reinbe...

18 Juni 43min

Peter Becker: A Career in Chromatin — From ISWI to Dosage Compensation

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we talked with Peter Becker from the Biomedical Center Munich about his successful career in Epigenetics, where he discovered the chromatin remodeler ISWI ...

4 Juni 1h 4min

Transcriptional and Epigenetic Regulation of Craniofacial Development (Filippo Rijli)

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we talked with Filippo Rijli from the Friedrich Miescher Institute about his work on transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of craniofacial and neuronal ...

21 Maj 51min