Previously Funded Research

Joana Vidigal, PhD

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Research Project:

Studying the impact of epigenetics in lung cancer

Summary:

Although lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related deaths in the US, the genetic and epigenetic changes that drive its progression remain incompletely understood. Recent sequencing efforts have provided an unprecedented view of the mutational landscape of human tumors and revealed that loss of epigenetic regulators is a common feature among cancers. In the lung in particular, mutations in histone modifiers that play essential roles in enhancer function occur in about one third of all lung adenocarcinomas. Dr. Vidigal’s work focuses on understanding the impact of these mutations, as well as mutations in noncoding regulatory elements, to the progression of these tumors. Towards this goal, Dr. Vidigal will take advantage of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing tools to model recurrent mutations in the lung of adult mice.