Noelia Ares Boveda

In our cells genes are being constantly switched on and off in a finely regulated manner. This regulation occurs mostly through the binding of proteins to enhancers, sequences in our DNA that promote the “on” state of genes. However, alterations in enhancer function can cause mistakes in the “on-off” switch of our genes, leading to diseases such as cancer. My research project is focused on identifying these regulatory proteins binding to enhancers of key cancer genes in glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive type of brain cancer with few treatment options. For this purpose, I adapted a tool called dCas9-APEX and established human glioblastoma cell lines expressing the dCas9- APEX complex. The expression of this tool in the cancer cells will allow me to use it as “fishing rod” to specifically capture, extract and identify relevant proteins binding to our enhancers of interest. This “fishing rod” will, together with further studies, help us understand what goes wrong in certain genes to lead to the development of brain cancer.efficiency and detect low-power MIR sources.