IU Researcher Lands Komen Grant
(Image of Dr. Chunyan He Courtesy of Indiana University.)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowTexas-based Susan G. Komen is supporting research at Indiana University. The $450,000 Career Catalyst Research Grant will fund efforts to identify markers that drive development of breast cancer.
Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center researcher Dr. Chunyan He says the focus will be on epigenetics. "Findings from this project will identify for the first time genetic and environmental factors that impact epigenetics in normal breast tissue and identify causal changes that drive breast cancer development. Most research in this area cannot distinguish the epigenetic markers that cause breast cancer from those that are the consequences of the disease."
IU says epigenetics examines links between age and exposure to environmental factors that may trigger changes in how genes are "switched on and off without changing the actual DNA sequence." Those factors include reproductive history, lifestyle and diet.
Dr. He will use the Komen Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center for her research. The bank is the only source of normal breast tissue for research purposes in the world.
