Working to understand features that distinguish aggressive, lethal ccRCC from less aggressive tumors, Dr. Salas aims to establish a lengthy career tackling the problem of kidney cancer. Under the dual mentorship of Dr. James Brugarolas (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center) and Dr. Brock Christensen (Dartmouth College), Dr. Salas is interested in exploring the role that hydroxymethylation of DNA plays in ccRCC biology and disease progression. Hydroxymethylation is one of the epigenetic modifications of the genome at cytosine residues (“C” base pair) – a chemical modification of DNA – rather than a mutation or deletion of a gene. Epigenetic modifications alter the expression of the genes (how your genome translates information into RNA and proteins) without altering the DNA sequence. Dr. Salas’ preliminary data suggests that hydroxymethylation, in general, is decreased in ccRCC samples compared to normal kidney tissues, and differs from other cytosine modifications in their locations, suggesting that the feature may contribute some information to action against the disease and, potentially, future therapies. The overall goals of his KCRP award are to fully characterize the state of hydroxymethylation patterns from 200 ccRCC and 50 normal kidney tissue samples. Additionally, Dr. Salas intends to correlate specific changes and patterns of hydroxymethylation with overall ccRCC survival rates. Finally, the project will seek out particular biomolecules whose presence is altered by changes to hydroxymethylation to determine their specific impact on ccRCC. If successful, this project could provide new understandings of ccRCC biology, opening the door for targeted therapies and/or insights into patient tumors, which may help guide decisions in the clinic.

FY20 ECIs – The KCRP was pleased to be able to bring an additional three new ECIs into the Academy during FY20 to join the inaugural class.