Karsten Rippe
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Bioquant, Division of Chromatin Networks, Heidelberg, Germany
Linking aberrant chromatin features in leukemia to deregulated gene expression
It is now well established that ‘active’ or ‘repressive’ chromatin states with distinct histone modifications and DNA methylation marks are tightly linked to cell type specific gene expression patterns. In cancer cells the underlying networks are frequently deregulated. However, linking the resulting aberrant chromatin features to the pathophenotype is challenging. We are dissecting deregulated epigenetic signaling in primary tumor cells from patients with leukemia to address this question. It is discussed howcancer specific chromatin patterns can be exploited for novel patient stratification schemes and linked to deregulated transcription and signaling pathways.