Innovations in the Life Sciences: Steve Jacobsen

The questions we're addressing relate to how genes function and specifically how they remember where and when they're supposed to be functioning. In other words, when a gene is turned on and turned off. And even more specifically, we're concerned about the sort of memory component. Once a gene has been turned on or off, how does it remember that state for long periods of time? And that's an area that is called epigenetics. DNA methylation is one of the most well-studied and classical marks in this field of so-called epigenetics. So it's a slight modification of one of the bases of DNA that's put on after the DNA is made. And it's essentially a mark on the gene that says whether the gene should be on or off. Generally, if there's more methylation on gene, that's a signal that the gene should be off. And when the gene needs to turn on, often the methylation will be removed. And so a big goal is to understand exactly the mechanisms by which this methylation gets put on and taken off so that we can understand how genes can remember whether they need to be on or off at any particular time. A very important aspect of cancer is the regulation of specific genes. And particular genes, especially genes such as tumor suppressor genes, when their gene regulation goes awry, that is often thought to be one of the causes of cancer. So tumor suppressor genes are genes which tell the cells not to undergo unregulated cell division. And if those genes are mutated, and so their function is lost, that is one obvious way that cancer can develop. But another important way is if the genes are inappropriately methylated and shut down. That is another way that those genes can malfunction and that you can have then cancer. I think one of the most substantial changes that I've seen in the life sciences is in this area of genomic research. The ability to look simultaneously at all of the genes of a genome and to make millions of measurements at the same time has really given us more of a systems view of various processes, including DNA methylation. I think the new Terasaki Life Sciences building is going to be really beneficial for my laboratory in at least a couple of ways. First of all, we're for the first time in very close proximity with colleagues that have very similar outlook on research, as well as using similar techniques. And I think this is going to be really wonderful for our postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. In addition, we were going to be near groups that are studying very different processes. We're just one floor above the Stem Cell Institute, so we'll have fantastic interactions with colleagues down there. We're one floor below Drosophila Geneticists, who are taking a very different look at things, but really can provide us with new viewpoints on our research.