Innovators That Are Furthering The Field of Epigenetics
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)
 | On May 28, 2009, one year from its launch, Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) announced its first round of three-year "Dream Team" grants to five multi-institutional, cross-disciplinary research teams, totaling $73.6 million. SU2C’s distinctive approach to funding cancer research was specifically designed to eliminate barriers to creativity and collaboration, in part, by enabling scientists with different expertise from different institutions across the country – and in some cases, internationally – to work together. Each Dream Team’s project is “translational” in nature, geared toward moving science from “bench to bedside” where it can benefit patients as quickly as possible. Collectively, the research being done through the Dream Team projects could impact the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of cancers in adults and children across ethnicities including, but not limited to pancreatic, breast, ovarian, cervical, uterine, brain, lung, prostate, melanoma and leukemia, which represent two thirds of all U.S. cancer deaths. (6) One Of The Dream Teams:
Epigenetic therapy is one of the most promising new areas of cancer research; this Dream Team hopes to finally bring it into clinical practice. Focusing on an array of cancers, the team will examine an epigenetic process known as DNA de-methylation, which inactivates or "silences" canacer stem cells. The they'lol develop a clinical trial to test the effects of a new drug that could effectively inhibit the epigenetic changes that lead to cancer. "Your DNA is like a hard drive," Jones said. "You've got all the information in it to read out and do everything you can do with it, but wihtout packaging and wihtout suffient software you can't instruct that DNA when to do X and when to do Y and Z. Cancers mutate the DNA and can thus corrupt the hard drive; but the package can also go wrong. Fortunately, the packaging is mroe reversible than trying to do something about an actual mutation. We can do things to bring that cell back into normal balance." (9) |
Epigentrek
Founded in 2005, Epigentrek specializes in epigenetic kits, antibodies, reagents, and services for epigenetic research in DNA methylation, histone modification, and chromatin studies. Their objectives are to:
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The Human Epigenome Project
 | The Human Epigenome Project was put together by the U.S Health Department of Energy and National Institutes of Health. It was a 13 year plan conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The Welcome Trust Fund became a partner of The Human Epigenome Project, and contributions from all over the world helped, including France, Germany and China. Project Goals Were To:
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