Establishment of autonomous epigenetics analysis for clinical application

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21H03550
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 62010:Life, health and medical informatics-related
• Research Institution: National Cancer Center Japan
• Principal Investigator: Kaneko Syuzo 国立研究開発法人国立がん研究センター, 研究所, ユニット長 (10777006)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: エピゲノム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A prototype of an autonomous epigenetics analysis system utilizing robotics was established. Specifically, the optimization of pretreatment for pathological tissue samples was performed, and ChIP-seq analysis was conducted on over 200 frozen lung cancer tissue samples. The obtained data was processed through an end-to-end pipeline, resulting in high-quality data. Additionally, the combination of three-dimensional genome structure analysis (Hi-C) and whole-genome sequencing elucidated the relationship between epigenetic abnormalities and gene expression. Furthermore, an autonomous machine learning model was constructed, attempting to predict drug targets from sparse Hi-C data.

Free Research Field

情報科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

学術的には、これらの成果により新たな創薬標的の発見が期待され、エピジェネティクス研究の進展に寄与する。社会的には、このシステムの実用化により、がんをはじめとする様々な疾患の早期診断や個別化医療の実現が加速され、医療の質の向上と患者の生活の質の改善が期待される。