DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/M4M4-3193
Defense Date
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Bioinformatics
First Advisor
Joseph Landry, PhD
Abstract
The initiation and progression of cancer are significantly influenced by genetic factors, and despite ongoing research, a definite cure for this disease remains elusive. Over time, researchers have explored various genes as potential targets for treating various types of cancer, and numerous innovative therapies continue to be developed. General chemotherapies face their own challenges like recurrence, while cancer specific drugs face the challenge of metastasis. Therefore, therapeutic strategies have slowly started to shift towards comprehending the pathways and corresponding genes that may be implicated in multiple types of cancer, with the aim of identifying more effective targets for drug development. One such potential target being the Bromodomain PHD-Finger Transcription Factor (BPTF), an essential subunit of Nucleosome Remodeling Factor (NURF) that has been reported through previous research to be a highly druggable potential target of NURF. This study seeks to improve our knowledge about the role of the BPTF gene in the onset of cancer and explore the correlated biological pathways and genes that might aid in further research and identification of cancer biomarkers using publicly available databases. Specifically, we use The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) SpliceSeq to analyze alternative splicing events in both normal and tumor samples, and TCGA Wanderer to examine CpG methylation patterns in normal and tumor samples. Additionally, we conducted gene ontology analysis using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) to identify shared pathways and genes that may be relevant for further research and potential therapeutic targeting.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-10-2023