The Keystone Program in Epigenetics and Progenitor Cells

The Opportunity

Fox Chase Cancer Center is in the position to bring together two exciting new research areas, epigenetics and progenitor cells, which have the potential for major new insights into the central issues of cancer, and this is the team to make those goals a reality.

The Keystone Program in Epigenetics and Progenitor Cells investigates two fundamentally new views of the origins and maintenance of tumor cells, with the goal of developing new strategies for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

Previously, it was thought that tumor cells arise solely from mutations in their genes. However, research conducted at Fox Chase has shown that heritable changes in the way genes are turned on or off, not involving DNA mutations, can also markedly contribute to cancer. The science that studies this heritable control of gene expression is called epigenetics. While it is nearly impossible, at the moment, to repair DNA mutations in cancer cells, many epigenetic changes in gene regulation can be directly reversed.

Also, while it was previously believed that all the cells in a tumor contribute equally to tumor growth, it is now clear that for many, if not most cancers, a special subset of cells is disproportionately responsible for tumor formation. These so-called progenitor or cancer stem cells are typically resistant to conventional therapy and are often responsible for relapse. Stem or progenitor cells usually display epigenetic changes, so combining the two research areas yields a program with a unique outlook and potential.

The Epigenetics faculty, September 2008