Areas of Research
Epigenetic regulation of myeloma
Multiple myeloma is in many ways a disease driven by inappropriate gene expression. It is characterised by the aberrant activation of gene regulatory elements known as enhancers, stimulating the upregulation of key oncogenes. Blocking this behaviour is therefore a promising strategy for myeloma treatment, and many therapeutic strategies directly or indirectly target gene regulatory pathways.
The lab studies the epigenetic regulation of gene expression, focused on the way these processes are dysregulated in multiple myeloma. We have a particular interest in understanding the role of oncogenic enhancer activity in driving myeloma-specific transcriptional profiles, and identifying the factors responsible for this behaviour. A major goal of the lab is to identify potential therapeutic targets that could be developed as novel therapies for multiple myeloma.
We use a variety of high-throughput genomics techniques to study the chromatin landscape, including ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq and RNA-seq. We have optimised TOPmentation, a small cell-number technique that allows us to characterise the chromatin profile of myeloma patient samples. In addition, we use the 3C technology Micro-Capture-C to map the physical association of enhancers and promoters. By combining these techniques with genetic and pharmacological manipulation of myeloma cell lines, we are able to explore mechanistically enhancer function and regulation.
Mechanisms of myeloma drug resistance
Relapse is very common in myeloma after initial treatment. Patients typically enter remission following treatment, but invariably relapse, often with resistance to one or more of these drugs. There is therefore a pressing need to understand the mechanisms that drive this resistance to find ways to counteract it. We are working to identify and understand epigenetic mechanisms that drive drug resistance via changes in gene expression, which therefore may be reversed to resensitise cells to therapy.
Our team
Nick Crump (he/him)
Nick Crump (he/him)
Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund Intermediate Fellow
Jinglin Zhou (he/him)
Jinglin Zhou (he/him)
PhD student
Jason Taslim (he/him)
Jason Taslim (he/him)
Research assistant
Sophie Ball (she/her)
Sophie Ball (she/her)
PhD student
Funders
Research Publications
Results
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Conference paperLee Y, Bladt F, Leonardos D, et al., 2023,
Immune graft composition is important for deepening response and outcome after autologous stem cell transplantation in patients with multiple myeloma who do not receive maintenance therapy
, 65th Annual Meeting of the American-Society-of-Hematology (ASH), Publisher: American Society of Hematology (ASH Publications), ISSN: 0006-4971 -
Conference paperNg HL, Robinson ME, Malysheva V, et al., 2023,
The transcriptional landscape of Ph plus B-ALL Is Orchestrated by long-range enhancerpromoter interactions and the coordinated action of phosphorylation-dependent and phosphorylation-independent transcription factors
, 65th Annual Meeting of the American-Society-of-Hematology (ASH), Publisher: American Society of Hematology (ASH Publications), ISSN: 0006-4971 -
Conference paperLau J, Harman JR, Jackson NE, et al., 2023,
Sustained MYB activity Is necessary for oncogenic transcription in KMT2A-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemia through enhancer-promoter interactions and epigenetic modifications at enhancers
, 65th Annual Meeting of the American-Society-of-Hematology (ASH), Publisher: American Society of Hematology (ASH Publications), ISSN: 0006-4971 -
Journal articleSchneider P, Crump NT, Arentsen-Peters STCJM, et al., 2023,
Modelling acquired resistance to DOT1L inhibition exhibits the adaptive potential of KMT2A-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemia
, Experimental Hematology & Oncology, Vol: 12, ISSN: 2162-3619In KMT2A-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), an aggressive malignancy, oncogenic KMT2A-fusion proteins inappropriately recruit DOT1L to promote leukemogenesis, highlighting DOT1L as an attractive therapeutic target. Unfortunately, treatment with the first-in-class DOT1L inhibitor pinometostat eventually leads to non-responsiveness. To understand this we established acquired pinometostat resistance in pediatric KMT2A::AFF1+ B-ALL cells. Interestingly, these cells became mostly independent of DOT1L-mediated H3K79 methylation, but still relied on the physical presence of DOT1L, HOXA9 and the KMT2A::AFF1 fusion. Moreover, these cells selectively lost the epigenetic regulation and expression of various KMT2A-fusion target genes such as PROM1/CD133, while other KMT2A::AFF1 target genes, including HOXA9 and CDK6 remained unaffected. Concomitantly, these pinometostat-resistant cells showed upregulation of several myeloid-associated genes, including CD33 and LILRB4/CD85k. Taken together, this model comprehensively shows the adaptive potential of KMT2A-rearranged ALL cells upon losing dependency on one of its main oncogenic properties.
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Journal articleCrump NT, Smith AL, Godfrey L, et al., 2023,
MLL-AF4 cooperates with PAF1 and FACT to drive high-density enhancer interactions in leukemia
, Nature Communications, Vol: 14, Pages: 1-20, ISSN: 2041-1723Aberrant enhancer activation is a key mechanism driving oncogene expression in many cancers. While much is known about the regulation of larger chromosome domains in eukaryotes, the details of enhancer-promoter interactions remain poorly understood. Recent work suggests co-activators like BRD4 and Mediator have little impact on enhancer-promoter interactions. In leukemias controlled by the MLL-AF4 fusion protein, we use the ultra-high resolution technique Micro-Capture-C (MCC) to show that MLL-AF4 binding promotes broad, high-density regions of enhancer-promoter interactions at a subset of key targets. These enhancers are enriched for transcription elongation factors like PAF1C and FACT, and the loss of these factors abolishes enhancer-promoter contact. This work not only provides an additional model for how MLL-AF4 is able to drive high levels of transcription at key genes in leukemia but also suggests a more general model linking enhancer-promoter crosstalk and transcription elongation.
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