Epigenetic Mechanisms of Breast Cancer Risk - James Flanagan
DCEG Events
December 5, 2016 | 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM
NCI Shady Grove
Title: Epigenetic Mechanisms of Breast Cancer Risk
Speaker: James M. Flanagan, Ph.D. Non-Clinical Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery & Cancer, Division of Cancer Epigenetics Unit, Imperial College London
Host: Dr. Montserrat Garcia-Closas, M.D., Dr.P.H., Deputy Director, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI
Description: In his presentation Dr. Flanagan will discuss the field of epigenetic epidemiology. It has rapidly advanced and recent work has discovered epigenetic markers of cancer risk in white blood cell (WBC) DNA. Using Epigenome-Wide Association Studies (EWAS) on the Illumina 450k methylation array, he and others have shown epigenome-wide hypomethylation in incident breast cancer cases compared with controls in several prospective cohorts. He has proposed a mechanism that involves cancer risk exposures, lifetime and environmental events, that alter the epigenome and stably modifies an individual's cancer risk. He has now expanded on this work by using whole genome bisulphite sequencing (WGBS) and target capture bisulphite sequencing (TCBS) and these new data provide a significant advance in identifying which parts of the epigenome are associated with breast cancer risk.
In addition to the seminar, Dr. Flanagan will participate in a round table discussion and he will be available for individual meetings.
Roundtable Discussion
Topic: DNA Methylation and Cancer Risk
Time: 1:00 to 2:30 P.M. and Location: 7E 032/034
Please contact Ka Lai Lou (ka.lou@nih.gov) if you would like to meet with Dr. Flanagan during his visit.