"This generous support from the Sontag Foundation will allow us to explore new areas of brain tumor biology, and will be critical in translating our findings to the clinic. We are grateful to be welcomed into this wonderful community.”

About DSA-Funded Research

The Nachtergaele Lab focuses on one facet of how long noncoding RNAs are regulated, which is the addition of chemical marks that can control their function and stability. These chemical marks may be attractive targets for therapeutics because they can be added and removed in a controlled manner. While it is known that these chemical marks are present, there is very little understanding of what their roles are in cancer progression. Sequencing studies in cohorts of glioma and glioblastoma patients have revealed that dysregulation of long noncoding RNAs is prevalent in these tumors. The Nachtergaele Lab proposes to uncover how chemical marks on these molecules contribute to this process.