Heritable methylation marks associated with cancer risk

DR JAMES DOWTY
Senior Research Fellow
Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics
University of Melbourne

DNA methylation marks are usually erased soon after conception, but some marks are effectively inherited from parents to their offspring.  Such heritable methylation marks can affect cancer risk, and many are systemic, so an assessment in peripheral blood can be used to predict cancer risk in other tissues. We’ve developed a statistical method to efficiently scan the genome for heritable methylation marks, based on complex segregation analysis and methylation array data in families. Using this method, we’ve found 24 heritable methylation marks associated with breast cancer risk, and 41 heritable marks for prostate cancer.  Some heritable marks were associated with both cancers, including some in the imprinted VTRNA2-1 region, which is known to have tumour suppressor properties. We hope that further study of these marks will give insight into how cancer develops, and will explain why some families with no known genetic abnormalities are prone to cancer.

Dr James Dowty is a biostatistician based in the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Melbourne.  He has degrees in physics, pure mathematics and biology, and 19 years of experience as a biostatistician.  He specialises in the analysis of family data, with applications to the genetic epidemiology of cancer.  Through cross-disciplinary collaborations, he has created novel statistical methods to answer important questions in epidemiology and biology.  He has made innovative contributions to mathematical statistics and information geometry, and he has written two R packages.