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Welcome to the Yan laboratory at Yale!

Cancer Epigenetics and Stem Cell Biology

Our laboratory is interested in understanding how epigenetic aberrations cause cancer and other human diseases.  In particular, we focus on the roles and regulatory mechanisms of histone demethylases from the JARID1/KDM5 protein family. These enzymes can remove tri- and di- methyl mark from lysine 4 in histone H3 (H3K4me3/2), the epigenetic marks for transcriptionally active chromatin. Our current data suggest that JARID1A/B enzymes are potential drug targets for cancer therapy and we have identified specific inhibitors of these enzymes. More ...