Center for Chromatin NanoImaging in Cancer

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One of the major goals for the Northwestern University U54 team is to understand alterations in chromatin organizations using multimodality nanoscopic imaging and explore a potential correlation between imaged chromatin spatial organizations with the stemness of cancers and the mechanism of chemotherapy resistance. The team has used human-derived and ovarian cancer cells and commercial ovarian cancer cell lines for the proposed investigation. In this project, the team proposes to develop photoswitchable DNA labels by modifying commonly used small-molecule DNA binding fluorescent dyes, such as Hoechst or 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), that are already widely used fluorophores for staining DNA in biological research. Using the new photoswitchable DNA label, the team will simultaneously label both DNA and histone proteins in control and ovarian cancer cells to achieve multiplexed sSMLM imaging. The team will also achieve nanodomain spatial contact analyses of DNA and histone proteins and correlate with ovarian cancer stem cells and cells resistant to chemotherapy.