UWA. Australia: An internationally renowned genomic researcher who published
breakthrough discoveries about cell development in top international
journal Science today, has returned to his home town of Perth after 20 years. Professor Forrest's publication in Science
followed years of work at the Japanese research organisation RIKEN
coordinating over 250 scientific collaborators from 20 countries in the
Japan-based FANTOM5 project, which made major strides toward resolving
an outstanding mystery in biology.
Professor Alistair Forrest has joined the Harry Perkins Institute of
Medical Research to continue his important work in Systems Biology and
Genomics with a renewed focus on cancer.
"All humans start from a single fertilized egg which divides
repeatedly and eventually forms all the cells that make up our bodies.
During this process different sets of genes are switched on or off to
run different programs in each of the 200 or so cell types that make up
our bodies," Professor Forrest explained.
"What has been studied in this work is how your cells switch from one
cell type or program to another. It's amazing what can be achieved
through large scale collaborative research."
The consortium showed that when cells undergo changes such as
differentiation into specialized cell types, the initial activation
happens at DNA regions called enhancers, a type of regulatory "switch"
which are typically located far from the genes that they activate.
The research, which examined a variety of cellular changes, showed
that activation of enhancers triggers the coordinated waves of change
that end up dramatically changing the phenotypes of the cells.
In particular, enhancers are activated in the first 15 minutes after
stimuli, and then activate a specific type of regulatory gene
(transcription factors) at 30-100 minutes, which in turn have the
ability of activating other genes over time, forming a cascade of
changes.
Professor Forrest was born in Western Australia and was recently
recruited to the Perkins thanks to funds raised in the 2014 Ride to
Conquer Cancer as well as a Senior Cancer Fellowship from the Cancer
Research Trust.
He has started the new Systems Biology and Genomics group at the
Perkins and aims to apply new genomic and bioinformatic approaches to
studying basic biology and cancer.
"It's great to be back in WA after 20 years away. There is this
critical mass forming for medical genomic science in Perth and it's an
exciting time," Professor Forrest said.
Professor Forrest was welcomed by Perkins Director Professor Leedman,
who said that cancer research was a major focus for the institute and
he looked forward to exciting new developments from Professor Forrest's
laboratory.
Other Australian based authors in the Science
paper were Professor Peter Klinken (WA's chief Scientist) and Dr Louise
Winteringham at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research;
Professor Ernst Wolvetang and Associate Professor Christine Wells at the
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (UQ) and Dr
Timo Lassmann at the Telethon Kids Institute.
The FANTOM5 project also included collaboration with international
experts in bioinformatics, genomics, immunology, obesity and stem cell
biology from around the world.
Today's publication is another important milestone for the FANTOM
consortium, which in March 2014 used CAGE technology to build almost
complete atlases of the promoters and enhancers in our genomes.
Reference:
•1. Arner E. et al. Transcribed enhancers lead waves of coordinated transcription in transitioning mammalian cells. Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1259418
•2. The FANTOM5 web site: (http://fantom.gsc.riken.jp/papers/)
•3. Forrest A.R.R. et al. A promoter level mammalian expression atlas. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13182.
•4. Andersson, R. et al. An atlas of active enhancers across human cell types and tissues. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12787