Dent Laboratory
- Departments, Labs and Institutes
- Labs
- Dent Laboratory
Research Areas
- Epigenetics
- Chromatin
- Stem Cell Biology
- Histone Modification
- Genome Stability
- Chromatin Remodelers
The Dent Laboratory is defining the roles of chromatin and chromatin-modifying proteins in regulating gene expression, genome integrity and other essential cellular processes with the overall goal of understanding the importance of chromatin remodeling and epigenetics in normal cell growth and development in order to gain insight into how misregulation of these activities contributes to disease states, including various cancers.
The chromatin field has been galvanized in the last several years by the identification of histone acetyltransferases (HATs), histone deacetylases (HDACs), histone methyltransferases (HMTs), and other chromatin modifying enzymes. It has been further stimulated by the discovery of modified-histone binding motifs in nonhistone proteins and the realization that regulatory switches are created by the cross-regulation of particular modifications. However, the functions of many histone modifying enzymes in vivo are still not well defined. Nor is it clear whether post-translational modifications in other proteins are cross-regulated as they are in histones. Research in the Dent lab addresses these important questions using a combination of genetic, molecular, and biochemical approaches and a variety of model systems, including Saccharomyces cerevesiae, mice, embryonic stem cells, and tissue culture cell lines.