With the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and most provisions due to take effect in 2014, it’s reasonable to ask what MD Anderson is doing to prepare.
Fall 2013 : Understanding epigenetics to develop new therapies
Expanding the search
Mark Bedford, Ph.D., professor in Molecular Carcinogenesis, works to identify novel epigenetic interactions and their role in disease.
Mark Bedford, Ph.D.
Bedford has developed a technology that immobilizes more than 300 different epigenetic domains on a glass slide. These can be used to identify proteins that interact with the domains, as well as small molecules that may serve to inhibit them. He established the Protein Domain Microarrays Core to provide this technology to other researchers. Using this technology, researchers can identify the molecular interactions of many types of epigenetic readers, which include a variety of epigenetic domains.
Bedford’s research program focuses specifically on arginine methylation, one type of epigenetic modification, and the family of enzymes that add this mark — protein arginine methyltransferases. Only recently has this family of enzymes been definitively linked to cancer. Interestingly, they do not appear to be mutated in cancer; instead, an overproduction of these enzymes is often observed in cancer cells. By understanding their cellular roles, Bedford anticipates that new avenues for drug development will become available.
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