Grant: Operating Grant

The word 'epigenetics' means something that is not within the gene sequence itself, so epigenetic regulators change the way specific genes function without altering their DNA sequence. One important research direction is to understand how different epigenetic regulators interact with one another to form networks in cells to control animal and human development. This grant application is about a novel epigenetic regulator called BRPF1, especially about its function in regulating mouse embryo development and hematopoietic stem cells. We have recently obtained strong evidence supporting this line of research. The human BRPF1 gene is mutated in childhood leukemia and adult medulloblastoma. In addition, BRPF1 collaborates with two close partners, and the genes of these two partners are recurrently mutated in leukemia, solid tumors, and multiple developmental disorders that share the common features of intellectual disability and developmental delay. Therefore, the proposed studies will yield important insights into the biological function of BRPF1 and the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms. The results will also be important for understanding the aforementioned diseases, which will in turn shed new light on how to develop novel diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic means for these and related human diseases.