- 건국대학교

	KU Alumni’s Research on Transcription of Leukemia-Associated Genes Published in Molecular Cell
	관리자		982		2016.03.30

On March 29, 2016, Konkuk University (KU) announced that research by Dr. Jung-Hyun Kim, who received both his undergraduate and doctorate degrees in biomedical science at the school, was published in Molecular Cell. A postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell Cancer Institute currently, Dr. Kim identified how SON, a nuclear protein, controls transcription of leukemia-associated genes. <img style="margin-left: auto; display: block; margin-right: auto;" alt="" src="ArticleFile.do?id=11656044" /> SON plays a critical role in RNA splicing. In 2013, it was revealed that SON directly regulate mRNA of Oct4, a pluripotency gene. However, neither transcriptional regulation and through DNA binding, another function of SON, nor the existence of SON isoforms have been demonstrated. Dr. Kim’s research showed that expression of two types of SON isoforms is regulated by alternative RNA splicing. In particular, expression of SON isoform was significantly higher among leukemia patients. o find out the relationship between SON isoforms and leukemia, the research team also performed epigenetic analysis using chromatin immunoprecipitation, and also demonstrated histone modification successfully. Professor Ssang-Goo Cho of the Department of Stem Cell Regenative Biology, who was Dr. Kim’s advisor at KU, said that further research on why SON isoforms are upregulated in leukemia will be useful for developing treatments for the disease. According to Professor Eun-Young Ahn of the Mitchell Cancer Institute, the findings demonstrated that increased expression of isoforms enhances the clonogentic ability of normal hematopoietic progenitor cells, implying that SON isoforms may cause leukemia. Professor Ahn and Dr. Kim said that they will continue research, especially in relation to cancer stem cells.

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