FUKS François

Units

Laboratory of Cancer Epigenetics

Person in charge of the Unit : Oui

The Laboratory of Cancer Epigenetics headed by François FUKS is interested in investigating the epigenetic mechanisms involved in health and disease, with a focus on DNA and histone modifications (e.g.: Viré et al. Nature 2006 ; Brenner et al. Dev Cell 2007 ; Villa et al. Cancer Cell 2007 ; Fuks F. Nature. 2010 ; Ndlovu et al. Trends Biochem Sci. 2011 ; Deplus et al. Cell Rep. 2014 ; Delatte et al. EMBO J. 2014 ).It is now clear that the roles play by epigenetic alterations in a growing number of medical conditions unfold the attractive opportunity to develop epigenetic therapies that promises to reshape the diagnostic and therapeutic arena (personalised medicine). In the last few years, the field of epigenetic has expanded into an essential component of biological and medical research, with modifications of DNA and histones being considered hallmarks of most human diseases, including cancer. Further, the epigenetic field has recently evolved from a gene-by-gene approach to a more global approach, with far-reaching clinical implications in the field of diagnosis and treatment. Essential to these efforts are the development of technologies to explore genome-wide epigenetic modifications. In line with these recent developments, François Fuks' team has also a deep interest in the generation of novel epigenomic technologies in health and diseases (e.g.; Dedeurwaerder et al. EMBO Mol Med 2011; Volkmar et al. EMBO J 2012; Deplus et al. EMBO J 2013; Boumahdi et al. Nature 2014). Technologies such as ChIP-Seq, RNA-Seq, Infinium Methylation are routinely used by the lab, which is heading the Epigenomics Core facility, EPICS.

Projetcs

Mechanisms of epigenetic modifications: facts, clues, mysteries

Epigenetic modifications are increasingly recognized as fundamental regulatory processes that are essential for a wide range of biological events and a key to far-reaching biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications. The molecular mechanisms underlying the intimate link between histone modifications, DNA methylation, gene silencing and human diseases are still poorly understood and deciphering these mechanisms represent one of the current major challenge in molecular biology. Overall, the goal of our work is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which the epigenetic machineries (associated with DNA methylation, histone methylation, deacetylation, ') functions and how there alterations can lead to human pathologies, such as cancer. Our study should factor significantly not only into understanding of gene expression but also into the abnormal processes which lead to oncogenesis.