The Center for Functional Genomics was established in 2004, thanks to the tremendous generosity of the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation. The NorthShore University HealthSystem Center for Medical Genetics established the Center for Functional Genomics to focus on one of the most promising areas of genetic research—Cancer Genomics.
The genomic study of cancer involves analysis of thousands of genes which may be involved in the causes of cancer, and may lend insight into prognosis, treatment, and prevention. One of the most promising areas of genetic research is tumor profiling. Every tumor has its own genetic signature. Microarray technology used in tumor profiling allows our physician-scientists to study thousands of genes at once, looking for a tumor’s or fingerprint. This fingerprint is also a tumor’s “Achilles’ heel,” which will ultimately lead to determining the best treatment for a particular tumor.
San Ming Wang, M.D., Director of the Center for Functional Genomics, uses whole genome approaches to identify genes involved in normal cell differentiation. Dr. Wang uses this information to determine genes involved in cancers such as leukemia and breast cancer. He is a leading expert in applying a technique called SAGE (serial analysis of gene expression) to identify novel genes in human, mouse and Drosophila genomes.
Recent Publications
Chen J, Kim YC, Jung Y-C, Xuan Z, Dworkin G, Zhang Y, Zhang MQ, Wang SM. Scanning the human genome at kilobase resolution. Genome Research (in press)
YC Kim, SM Wang. Decoding Brain Transcriptome by SAGE. New Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Elsevier Press. Editors: Larry Squire, Tom Albright, Floyd Bloom, Fred Gage and Nick Spitzer (in press)
SM Wang. Long-short-long games in transcript identification: the length matters. Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. (in press)
J Lu, Y Shen, Q Wu, S Kumar, B He, RW Carthew, SM Wang, CI Wu. The birth and death of microRNA genes in Drosophila. Nature Genetics (in press)
SM Wang. Understanding SAGE data. Trends in Genetics 23(1):42-50, 2007.
X Ge, SM Wang. Identifying non-specific SAGE tags by context of gene expression. Serial Analysis of Gene Expression: Methods and Protocols. Humana Press. Editor: Kåre Lehmann Nielsen, 198-203, 2007.
S Lee, J Hwang, J Ulaszek, YC Kim, H Dong, HS Kim, JW Seok, BK Suh, SJ Yim, D Johnson, NH Choe, KT Chang, ZY Ryoo, CC Tseng, A Wickrema, SM Wang. Stable transcriptional status in the apoptotic erythroid genome. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 359(3):556-62, 2007.
YC Kim, Y-C Jung, Z Xuan, MQ Zhang, SM Wang. Pan-genome isolation of low abundant transcripts through SAGE tag mis-priming. FEBS Letters 580: 6721–6729, 2006.
X Ge, Q Wu, SM Wang. SAGE detects microRNA precursors. BMC Genomics 7:285-287, 2006.
X Ge, YC Jung, Q Wu, WA Kibbe, SM Wang. Annotating non-specific SAGE tags with microarray data, Genomics, 87:173-180, 2006.
Hot paper in the field of Computer Sciences: Ge X, Wu Q, Jung YC, Chen J, SM Wang. A large quantity of novel human antisense transcripts detected by LongSAGE. Bioinformatics. 22:2475-2479, 2006.
SM Wang. Applying the SAGE technique to study the effects of electromagnetic field on biological systems. Proteomics. 6:4765-4768, 2006.
S Lee, J Chen, G Zhou, RZ Shi, G Bouffard, M Kocherginsky, X Ge, M Sun, N Jayathilaka, YC Kim, N Emmanuel, S Bohlander, M Minden, J Kline, O Ozer, R Larson, M LeBeau, E Green, J Trent, T Karrison, P Liu, SM Wang, JD Rowley. Gene Expression Profiles in Acute Myeloid Leukemia with Common Translocations using SAGE, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103:1030-1035, 2006.