Our team has developed some of the first pipelines for genome-scale DNA methylation analysis. Our work on blood cells provided a comprehensive resource for understanding altered disease susceptibility and phenotype due to variable DNA methylation and has broader implications for the selection of DNA methylation biomarker for common human diseases.

We are applying cutting-edge whole genome scale DNA methylation analysis in tissues as well as well as in cell free DNA (epigenetic liquid biopsy) to investigate clinically relevant biomedical research questions (e.g. methylation map of colorectal, prostate and lung cancer patients and chronic fatigue syndrome).

Our work in epigenetic editing has implication in revealing causal function and new epigenetic regulation of genes in cancer cell. Our work has revealed aberrant methylation and expression patterns in several cancer types and revealed new mechanism of epigenetic regulation in cancer cells.

In this talk I will present the key findings from some of our works over the years and briefly elaborate on some future directions of our work in understanding the role of DNA methylation events in cancer metastasis, early detection, and treatment monitoring in solid cancers.