Methodological development of epigenetic biomarkers in esophageal cancer

Scope of Work Dr. Wei Zhang has broad research interests in human genetics, bioinformatics, and statistical genetics, with a focus on the genetic and epigenetic contributors to complex diseases, including cancers. In particular, he has extensive experience in methodological development and analysis of genome-wide data generated from high-throughput platforms, including the next generation sequencing technologies. In this sponsored project, Dr. Zhang’s lab will develop, optimize, and validate bioinformatic processing and data analysis pipelines for high-throughput 5hmC data, with the aim to identify effective biomarkers for clinical diagnosis of esophageal cancer. Specifically, Dr. Zhang will have access to the genome-wide 5hmC data generated by Epican technology (the Company) derived from ~500 patients with esophageal cancer and non-cancer controls. Dr. Zhang’s lab will develop bioinformatic processing and statistical pipelines to analyze the 5hmC data and associated biomedical information to identify 5hmC biomarkers that can distinguish patients with esophageal cancer from non-cancer individuals. Dr. Zhang will validate the findings with independent samples that are currently being collected by the Company. Dr. Zhang will prepare manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals and presentations in scientific conferences.