Nanopore based profiling of epigenetic state

NIH RePORTER · NIH · R01 · $492,993 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Project Summary: Though a reference human genome and even excellent characterization of the epigenome (ENCODE, Epigenetics Roadmap) has been generated, the significance of noncoding genetic or epigenetic changes is still far from clear. With the advent of affordable DNA- sequencing technologies, methods have been developed for examining nuclear organization, chromatin state/histone post translation modifications, chromatin accessibility and methylation state. But these methods do not directly interrogate the DNA strand, and the reads are typically too short to provide critical correlative information. We propose the development of a novel epigenetic characterization methodology, fundamentally through the practical implementation of the sequencing of modified bases using a nanopore sequencing platform. Nanopore sequencing directly probes the chemical structure of the molecule in the pore with exquisite sensitivity. Its long reads enable correlation of epigenetic state over large (>10kb) stretches of the genome; each of these reads originates from a single cell, probing the epigenetic heterogeneity of the sample.

Key facts

NIH application ID
9895852
Project number
5R01HG009190-04
Recipient
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Principal Investigator
Winston George Timp
Activity code
R01
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2020
Award amount
$492,993
Award type
5
Project period
2017-04-19 → 2021-03-31