The Biological Methylation Conference: Fundamental Mechanisms in Human Health and Disease

Ernesto Guccione is a leader in the field of Arginine Methylation and Cancer Epigenomics and Transcriptomics. He has a long-standing interest in understanding basic mechanisms of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation to identify therapeutic opportunities in oncology. He is a Full Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where he also leads the Bioinformatics for Next Generation Sequencing (BiNGS) Shared Resource Facility to provide NGS computational analysis for Tisch Cancer Institute (TCI)-affiliated faculty members.
 
Guccione has expertise in biochemistry, molecular and computational biology, and preclinical oncological studies using mouse models of cancer (DLBCL, AML, HCC and CRC) and tumor organoids (HCC and CRC). His research has focused on dissecting the role of oncogenic Protein Methyltransferases (PMTs), such as Protein Arginine Methyltransferases (i.e., PRMT6 and PRMT5), SET domain containing proteins (i.e., EZH2, G9a), and PRDMs (i.e., PRDM9, PRDM10, and PRDM15). He and his team have characterized the function of PRMT5, a key enzyme playing a role in transcriptional and post-transcriptional modulation. PRMT5 is essential in regulating early embryogenesis and neural stem cell homeostasis and in cooperating with MYC to ensure that the levels of the core pre-mRNA splicing machinery are sufficiently elevated to fuel lymphomagenesis. As an independent investigator, his lab has collaborated with multiple Pharma companies to advance the knowledge of PRMT5 biology and helping their compounds progress to clinical trials. 

Ernesto completed his PhD studies in Molecular Virology at the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in Trieste, Italy. He did his postdoc training in Cancer Biology, Epigenetics at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan and was an EMBO Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Proteomics in Boston. 

Guccione has been the lead PI and coordinator on multiple grants, including large collaborative efforts. He has published more than 90 peer-reviewed papers (corresponding author in Nature, Nature Genetics, Cancer Cell, Cell Stem Cell, G&D, Science Advances, Science Signaling, and Nature Communications among others) and delivered more than 60 invited talks. He serves on the Editorial Board of Epigenomes. 

Ernesto Guccione is the inventor of five patent applications and the Scientific Co-Founder of ImmuNOA Pte. Ltd., a biotech startup company focused on improving T cell immunotherapy. He is a Special Advisor to the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Singapore, and Coordinator of the Joint Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences between the National University of Singapore and IMCB.

Robert Schneider is the Director of the Institute of Functional Epigenetics at the Helmholtz Center and Professor of Biology at the Ludwigs Maxililians University in Munich. Schneider has been a major contributor to the study of novel types and sites of histone modifications and how they mechanistically regulate chromatin function. His team’s current focus is environment-genome interactions, metabolic signaling to chromatin, and mechanisms of transcriptional memory and epigenetic reprogramming. 

He completed his PhD in Genetics from Ludwigs Maxililians University and his postdoctoral studies in Epigenetics at the University of Cambridge. He was the Max Planck Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany, and the PI and Head of the Functional Epigenetics and Chromatin Regulation Group at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC) in Strasbourg, France.  

Schneider has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers. He is the recipient of prestigious awards such as a “Chaire Gutenberg” from Strasbourg University, the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Career Development Award, and an ERC Grant from the European Research Council. He was recently elected to the Academia Europea. 

Robert Schneider is the founder of the epigenetics@HMGU initiative, which aspires to position Helmholtz Munich as an international hotspot for epigenetics research and create impact for and with society.
 

Clare Davies is a Reader of Cancer Cell Biology in the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. Her research is focused on understanding the role of PRMTs, enzymes that catalyze methylation of arginine residues, in cancer pathogenesis. This is important as inhibitors to specific PRMTs are in pre-clinical development for cancer therapy.

Davies started her research group in 2012 as a Birmingham Fellow. Her approaches involve understanding the role of PRMTs from the molecular level to the whole animal by using a combination of cell biology, protein-biochemistry, and mouse genetics approaches. She has attracted highly competitive funding from Cancer Research UK (CRUK), the Medical Research Council (MRC) of UK Research and Innovation, Breast Cancer Now, and Astra Zeneca. Her most recent work, focusing on breast cancer as a model, has led to publications in Molecular Cell, Cell Reports and Nature Communications.

Davies is particularly interested in understanding the epigenetic role of PRMTs in breast cancer stem cells, and how PRMTs contribute to genome stability and drug resistance. She is also researching the mechanisms by which PRMT activity is controlled after DNA damage. Her work with industry will help determine if therapeutic targeting of PRMTs in breast cancer is a viable option.

Kai Ge is a Senior Investigator and Section Chief at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the National Institutes of Health.  His lab is interested in epigenomic regulation of cell fate transition, with a focus on enhancer regulation by histone H3K4me1 methyltransferases MLL3/MLL4.  Additionally, his lab investigates epigenomic regulation of adipose tissue development by transcription factors, histone methyltransferases and chromatin remodelers.