From Colitis to Cancer: Epigenetic Memory

Dr. Surya Nagaraja of Harvard University reports on a study in which simultaneous profiling of chromatin accessibility and gene expression (SHARE-seq) in over 50,000 single cells from a mouse model of colitis revealed that intestinal stem cells heterogeneously encode an epigenetic memory after full morphologic recovery. Nagaraja and colleagues found that persistent chromatin states are encoded by distinct sets of transcription factors and frequently decouple from transcription. By combining multiomic sequencing with clonal labeling, the team identified epigenetic states that are heritably maintained within clonally-related cells. Finally, the team found that epigenetic memory of colitis is maintained following oncogenic transformation and promotes tumor growth, adding insight into the link between chronic inflammation and malignancy.

Nagaraja will discuss:

• Frameworks for analyzing single-cell multiomic data.
• Novel methods for studying clonal biology.
• Regulatory mechanisms of epigenetic memory.