Chromatin Signaling and Diseases

Dr. Olivier Binda is a Researcher at the University of Ottawa, specializing in epigenetics and gene expression as it relates to human diseases. Dr. Binda co-edited Chromatin Signaling and Diseases (Elsevier 2016), a volume in Elsevier’s Translational Epigenetics series, and has published 20 scientific papers in such peer reviewed journals as the Molecular Cell, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Biochemistry, Epigenetics, Oncogene, Scientific Reports, and Stem Cell Research. In past positions he has served as a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University and Stanford University, and he completed his PhD in Biochemistry at McGill University in 2007. Affiliations and expertise University of Ottawa, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Ottawa, CANADA. The research program of Martin E. Fernandez-Zapico, M.D., focuses on the cellular and molecular characterization of epigenetic pathways regulating pancreatic carcinogenesis, a dismal disease with one of the poorest prognoses among all neoplasms. Specifically, Dr. Fernandez-Zapico and his team study the modulation of chromatin and nuclear dynamics by oncogenic cascades and its impact in gene expression regulation, a critical step during pancreatic neoplastic transformation.Dr. Fernandez-Zapico and his team are confident that the knowledge derived from his studies will help with the understanding of the contribution of these epigenetic events to the initiation and/or progression of pancreatic carcinogenesis as well as serve as a foundation for the development of new therapeutic approaches.Dr. Fernandez-Zapico's program is affiliated with the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Department of Oncology, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and the Center for Cell Signaling in Gastroenterology. His research is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the NIH-funded Mayo Clinic Pancreatic Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE), the NIH-funded Mayo Clinic Center for Cell Signaling in Gastroenterology, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation. Ana Sevilla Hernandez is Head of the Stem Cells in the Development and Disease Lab, Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Faculty of Biology, Barcelona University, Spain.

Section I: Histone Mark Writers
1. Histone Acetyltransferases, Key Writers of the Epigenetic Language
2. Impacts of Histone Lysine Methylation on Chromatin
3. The Role of Histone Mark Writers in Chromatin Signaling: Protein Arginine Methyltransferases
4. Histone Kinases and Phosphatases

Section II: Histone Mark Readers
5. The Bromodomain as an Acetyl-Lysine Reader Domain
6. Chromo Domain Proteins
7. The Role of PHD Fingers in Chromatin Signaling: Mechanisms and Functional Consequences of the Recognition of Histone and Non-histone Targets
8. Tudor Domains as Methyl-Lysine and Methyl-Arginine Readers

Section III: Histone Mark Erasers
9. Histone Deacetylases, the Erasers of the Code
10. Lysine Demethylases: Structure, Function, and Disfunction

Section IV: Chromatin Signaling
11. Variation, Modification, and Reorganization of Broken Chromatin
12. Crosstalk Between Histone Modifications Integrates Various Signaling Inputs to Fine-Tune Transcriptional Output
13. Signaling and Chromatin Networks in Cancer Biology

Section V: Chromatin Dynamics in Normal and Disease Conditions
14. Crosstalk Between DNA Methylation and Chromatin Structure
15. Epigenetic Regulation of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress
16. Chromatin Signaling in Aging and Cellular Senescence
17. Chromatin Dynamics and Epigenetics of Stem Cells and Stem-Like Cancer Cells
18. Altered Chromatin Signaling in Cancer
19. Impact of Chromatin Changes in Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases: A Pathogen View
20. Chromatin Remodeling and Epigenetic Reprogramming in Chronic Disease and Cancer in the Liver and Pancreas
21. Pharmacological and Therapeutic Targeting of Epigenetic Regulators
22. Use of Chromatin Changes as Biomarkers
23. Regulation of Host Chromatin by Bacterial Metabolites
25. Phase separation and chromatin
26. Cancer evolution