Research
Zhiguo Zhang’s laboratory studies epigenetic inheritance and cancer epigenetics. How epigenetic states are transmitted into daughter cells is a challenging, but yet poorly understood, question in the chromatin and epigenetic fields. Recently, it became clear that epigenetic alterations contribute to tumorigenesis and development of drug. However, how alterations in epigenetic landscape contribute to tumorigenesis and drug resistance is largely unexplored. The laboratory focuses on three major directions to study epigenetic inheritance and cancer epigenetics. First, how parental histones, the primary carrier of epigenetic information, are reassembled into nucleosomes following DNA replication in yeast and mammalian cells. Second, how onco-histone mutations found in gliomas reprogram cancer epigenomes. Third, how epigenetic changes drive drug resistance in brain tumors. The overall goal is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance and drug resistance and discover novel therapeutics for cancer treatment in the future.