Description:

Samantha Pattenden, PhD - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Friday, April 18 @ 12pm CT - Live on Zoom

Registration: https://tinyurl.com/bdh992n5

Abstract

The Pattenden Lab develops epigenetic technologies to accelerate cancer biomarker and therapeutic target discovery. One of our strategies exploits tumor-specific changes in chromatin accessibility, a universal feature that is directly linked with transcription activation, DNA damage repair, replication, RNA processing, and nuclear organization. Since chromatin accessibility offers a comprehensive overview of the rewiring of transcriptional networks that accompanies processes such as cellular differentiation, tumor growth, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance, it is frequently more reliable in predicting cell behavior than gene expression profiles alone. To assess the diagnostic potential of chromatin accessibility patterns in tumor cells, we invented and patented a method for extraction of high-quality accessible chromatin from formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues. Further, we developed a novel high throughput screen for small molecule inhibitors of aberrant chromatin accessibility that is currently supported by the NCI Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) program. In addition to our assays focused on chromatin accessibility, we have developed and implemented a first-in-class screen for inhibitors of the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) pathway in the ALT-positive pediatric cancers, neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma. This screen identified several confirmed modulators of ALT activity that are now being explored.

About Samantha Pattenden

Dr. Pattenden is an Associate Professor in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned a B.Sc. in Microbiology and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Toronto. She has over 20 years of experience in the field of epigenetics. Her laboratory is focused on the invention of technologies that advance our understanding of chromatin regulation and in the development of phenotypic screening platforms for the discovery of new cancer therapeutic targets. Dr. Pattenden is also a co-founder of Triangle Biotechnology, Inc., which is developing innovative, high-quality, high-throughput sonication solutions for biological sample preparation.