Understanding the effects of heterochromatin hypomethylation in cancer

Although we have many types of cells, they all contain the same DNA and genes. Cells are different because they express different genes. DNA can be tagged by chemicals known as epigenetic marks that help turn genes on and off. One of these marks, DNA methylation, is abundant in normal cells but lost in cancers. We want to understand if this loss of DNA methylation is a key step in whether some people develop cancer. This work will outline how measurements of DNA methylation could be used to decide how patients with cancer are treated.