Biomedical Research Core 2: Epigenetics Core

Project Abstract Biomedical Research Core 2: Epigenetics Core (Core Director: Xiaogang Li; Core Co-Director: Kenneth Peterson) The goal of the Epigenetics Core is to help PKD researchers understand and investigate the mechanisms by which transcriptional and epigenetic regulation are disrupted in PKD, and to use this information to develop specific and effective therapeutic strategies. To this end, the Epigenetics Core will provide services and reagents to the local and extended base PKD community to facilitate the efforts of PKD investigators to make cutting-edge discoveries in this new and exciting frontier in PKD science. The Core will build upon existing resources and capabilities in the Kidney Institute, and the KUMC Center for Epigenetics and Stem Cell Biology (Directed by Dr. Kenneth Peterson), together with outstanding capabilities of the Genome Sequencing Facility and the Biostatistics and Informatics Shared Resource available at KUMC. The Core will help PKD researchers to identify and investigate epigenetic modifications on PKD-associated genes and to examine epigenetic mechanisms that regulate signaling pathways associated with PKD. The Core will provide a variety of rapid-turnaround services to researchers, including DNA methylation analysis, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), ChIP-sequencing, and real-time quantitative PCR gene expression analysis, and will provide knockout mouse models of key epigenetic regulators. These services and reagents will help investigators identify epigenetic signaling pathways disrupted in PKD and will facilitate the identification of targets for the development of new therapies. The Core will also help with an education/consultation program to help PKD researchers better understand epigenetics mechanisms in general and in PKD, and will provide technical training to help investigators design new epigenetics-related research projects.