Meet the Expert: Dr Steve Chan - The epigenetic regulation of breast cancer

Proteintech is delighted to host Dr. Steve Chan from The University of Wisconsin-Madison, as he takes us through their recent paper “The transcriptional elongation factor CTR9 demarcates PRC2-mediated H3K27me3 domains by altering PRC2 subtype equilibrium”, published in the journal Nucleic Acid Research.

Chan and colleagues, under the supervision of Professor Wei Xu, performed quantitative measurement of histone modifications as well as unbiased ChIP-Rx analyses, to show that CTR9 controls the levels and genomic distribution of H3K27me3 (a histone modifier) in breast cancer cells. CTR9 depletion profoundly affects PRC2 subtype switching and generates vulnerability that renders breast cancer cells hypersensitive to PRC2 inhibitors. Their study uncovers a mechanism to provide the basis for therapeutically targeting CTR9-low breast tumors with EZH2 inhibitors.