YCC receives $1.2 million NIH grant to fund gene imaging research

Yale Cancer Center has received an Exploratory Developmental Grant from NIH to fund 3D gene imaging research.

The three-year, $1.2 million R33 award will help support research on multiplexed imaging of chromatin folding and RNA profiles in cancer and lead to new biomarkers for cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. The NIH R33 funding provides a second phase for the support for innovative exploratory and development research activities.

“This funding will make a significant impact as it will help open up new opportunities to study the 3D genome in cancer, including the clonal diversity of chromatin architectures in cancer and gene expression regulation mechanisms by 3D chromatin organization,” Mandar Muzumdar, assistant professor of genetics and medicine at YCC, researcher at the Yale Cancer Biology Institute and co-principal investigator, said in a statement. “We hope to apply these technologies in future clinical trials to validate their utility in human cancer biospecimens.”

“Our plan is to help better define cancer cell states, and in turn lead to the discovery of new prognostic and predictive biomarkers,” Siyuan (Steven) Wang, assistant professor of genetics and cell biology at YCC and co-PI said in a statement. “The research may also offer new avenues for chromatin-targeted approaches for cancer prevention and therapy.”