Tucked inside the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center is a laboratory-office suite that is the site of groundbreaking research in the treatment and prevention of cancer and other illnesses and conditions: the USC Epigenome Center. Epigenetics is an emergent science that studies the changes in the activities of genes that do not involve alterations to the fundamental genetic information, and the doctors and scientists at the Norris Cancer Center are at the forefront.
Each cell in the human body contains about 25,000 genes, all with identical genetic information. However, different groups of genes are used to make the cells act differently: one cell acts as an eye cell, “switching off” the sets of genes it does not use, for example, while an identical cell acts as a muscle cell. The DNA sequencing of the human genome allowed scientists to see the codes for all the genes. The patterns of gene expression, however, are regulated by the epigenome, cellular material that sits on top of and “packages” the genome. When the packaging is right, cells work. When it goes wrong, disease can occur. While it is almost impossible to change the sequence of the genes themselves, many epigenetic processes can potentially be altered by drug treatment, switching on the good genes that have inappropriately turned off and silencing the bad ones that have been turned on. Some epigenetic drugs now used in the treatment of cancer are thought to work in part by stimulating tumor-suppressor genes that have been turned off, for example.
The USC Epigenome Center was established in 2008 and has two important components. The laboratory generates the primary information with its state-of-art, next-generation DNA sequencing technology that allows scientists to sequence the genome or epigenome, depending on the research protocol, of an individual in about a week. Compare that to the time it took to map the first genome: 10 years and three billion dollars. These machines generate a massive amount of data that has to be analyzed, so the other half of the center is devoted to computational biologists who can sift through the data and catalogue, characterize, and interpret it so scientists can use the data to see how genes are packaged in normal and diseased states.
Because of its proven ability in efficiently mapping and analyzing the epigenome, the Center has been awarded a $10.4 million National Cancer Institute grant to fund a collaborative effort with Johns Hopkins University to collect epigenomic data from all major types of cancer over the next five years. The epigenomic data collected will contribute to The Cancer Genome Atlas, a long-term project that will provide a comprehensive “map” of molecular changes in cancer. Once the research is processed, the database will be accessible to the public, with the intention that it become a crucial source for information to help design new drugs and much more targeted therapy with less side effects.
Norris Foundation funds have been used in a multiyear grant to launch and support the USC Epigenome Center.
