DNA Methylation

In collaboration with the Edwards Lab in the Center for Pharmacogenomics, the McCoy Lab is currently working on projects investigating the structure and function of DNA methylation proteins. Our contributions focus on the plasmid design, expression, and purification of DNA methylation proteins using bacterial plasmid vectors. Using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), we purify these proteins to a high level of purity for use in functional DNA methylation assays as well as planned structural experiments using protein crystallography. Future work on this project will include the development of methylation protein-based tools that will help scientists better understand patterns of methylation and demethylation in genetic diseases like skin cancer.

This image demonstrates DNA methylation graphically. The glowing spheres represent methyl groups added to cytosine nucleotides by DNA methylation enzymes. (Source: Christoph Bock, Max Planck Center for Informatics)
Using our lab’s Bio-Rad NGC High-Performance Liquid Chromatography system, we are able to purify proteins for DNA methylation experiments, as well as for other projects in the lab. (Source: McCoy Lab)
SDS-PAGE and Western Blotting using our lab’s iBlot 2.0 and SNAP-i.d. equipment allow us to analyze and confirm the purity of protein samples with high accuracy and speed. (Source: McCoy Lab)