Kasper Daniel Hansen, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins
January 17, 2012 @ 3:30 - 4:30 pmLocation: Blockley Hall - Room 701
Biostatistics
TITLE: Analysis of whole-genome shotgun bisulfite sequencing data
DNA methylation is a widely studied epigenetic mark known to be implicated in tissue differentiation and disease, specifically cancer. We have performed the first genomewide analysis of changes in DNA methylation in cancer, using next-generation bisulfite sequencing of 3 paired tumor-normal samples. We describe the structure of local, small-scale epigenetic changes in cancer. We also show hypo-methylation of large scale genomic domains encompassing more than half the genome. The statistical tools used to discover these aberrations will be described, including smoothing of a binomial process using local likelihood methods.
