Enzymes, Embryos and Cancer — Dr. David Shechter has been awarded a combined $2.3 million in funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and the American Cancer Society. The ACS grant supports his study of regulation of the chaperones that escort histone proteins to assemble chromatin, the physiological form of the genome containing epigenetic information. Epigenetics, information layered on top of the DNA in its histone packaging, is significant for its role in development and in cancer. The NIH grant supports his study of PRMT5-MEP50, a histone-modifying enzyme complex required for embryonic development but that is overexpressed in many types of cancer. Dr. Shechter will investigate the biochemical mechanisms by which PRMT5-MEP50 targets the histone proteins essential for epigenetic regulation of embryonic development. Insights from his work will be critical for new insight into cancer and for designing new drugs. Dr. Shechter is assistant
professor of biochemistry.
Posted on: Friday, December 19, 2014