ICBR Bioinformatics Contributes to Landmark UFHCC Publication

The ICBR Bioinformatics Core contributed to a high-profile paper from the cancer research laboratory of UFHCC Director Dr. Jonathan Licht, recently published in Cancer Discovery.

The paper, entitled “A Mutation in Histone H2B Represents a New Class of Oncogenic Driver”, describes how mutations in core histones disrupt nucleosome stability, leading to disregulation of gene expression and acting as a novel oncogenic mechanism. As part of this study the investigators used a technique called ATAC-Seq which uses Next-Gen Sequencing to identify open chromatin regions in the genome. To analyze this data, Alberto Riva, BI Scientific Director, developed an ad-hoc analysis pipeline able to measure subtle differences in the size and placement of open regions, and to correlate them with changes in gene expression.

“This project is a great example of a successful collaboration between experimental and computational scientists, to answer novel questions and open up new areas of research,” says Dr Riva.

Full Publication Information:

AACR Publications: http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-19-0393

Learn more about ICBR Bioinformatics (Click Here)