ASH 2021 | Epigenetic research within multiple myeloma
Gareth Morgan, MD, PhD, FRCP, FRCPath, Perlmutter Cancer Center, NYU Langone Health, New York, NY, comments on the excitement surrounding research into epigenetics in multiple myeloma. Technologies such as Hi-C enable researchers to examine the structure of the nucleus and can quantify interactions between DNA. In the clinic, this can be detect copy number variation and chromosomal translocations, which can enhance understanding of multiple myeloma disease biology. This interview took place at the 63rd ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition congress in Atlanta, GA.
Transcript (edited for clarity)
So some of the really interesting new research looks at the epigenetic structure of the nucleus. And while it’s not really hit mainstream as yet, some of the technology like Hi-C is really important and it will translate over into the clinical arena. So it’s a kind of variant of gene sequencing, but you force the DNA to make interactions, and then it’s like an interaction map at a DNA level...
So some of the really interesting new research looks at the epigenetic structure of the nucleus. And while it’s not really hit mainstream as yet, some of the technology like Hi-C is really important and it will translate over into the clinical arena. So it’s a kind of variant of gene sequencing, but you force the DNA to make interactions, and then it’s like an interaction map at a DNA level. And so in the clinic, that could be really helpful because you can pick up when one part of the genome interacts with another and comes together. So like for myeloma, the chromosomal translocations, you’ll pick all of those up as well as copy number changes. So, that’s a really interesting way of being able to characterize myeloma in the clinic. And if we can understand those interactions more and how they lead to gene expression changes, you should be able to alter those interactions using epigenetic treatments. So I think there is future in that from a research perspective.
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