Chromatin Modifications

The genetic information in eukaryotic cells is tightly wrapped around histone proteins to form chromatin, which is highly repressive to processes occurring on DNA. However, we know since pioneering studies by Vincent Allfrey in the early 1960s that histones are subjected to a wide variety of covalent post-translational modifications (PTMs) that can modulate DNA accessibility, thereby playing key roles in many biological processes. Thus, rather than a simple impediment, chromatin is a highly dynamic regulatory platform that helps to fine-tune the control of DNA metabolic processes, including transcription, replication and repair. Importantly, there are increasing number of reports linking alterations of the histone PTM landscape to different cancer states. Our main interest is the characterization of the pathways leading to histone PTMs and their involvement in cancer.