September 30 (Mon) - October 2 (Wed), 2019

Prof. Sung Hee Baek has been contributing to the understanding of chromatin dynamics and epigenetic regulatory mechanism in cancer, autophagy, and inflammation. Since she joined the faculty of Seoul National University in 2003, She has been pioneering in the field of epigenetics and chromatin dynamics by focusing on signal-dependent epigenetic regulation of gene expression. She has been leading her Research Center for Epigenetic Code and Diseases. Epigenetics encompass inheritable changes in gene expression profiles that occur without alterations to the genomic DNA sequence. Epigenetic modifications conduct important roles in diverse biological processes that range from regulation of gene expression to human diseases. Her groups aim to define 'the epigenetic code and diseases', investigate causality of the relationship between the epigenetic code and diseases to ultimately screen 'epigenetic drugs' for therapeutic applications. For this, her groups plan to identify novel epigenetic code and regulators, generate their mouse models, define their physiological roles in homeostasis, and explore the mechanisms of their disturbance in epigenetic diseases. In this presentation, her continued efforts to decipher epigenetic code and diseases will be discussed as well as introduction of newly identified signaling crosstalk regulated by epigenetic modifications.