Melanie Ehrlich

Professor of Biochemistry and Human Genetics
TCC Program Member
Founder of the DNA Methylation Society/Epigenetics Society

Homepages:
http://www.tulane.edu/~biochem/faculty/ehrlich.htm
http://www.som.tulane.edu/departments/human_genetics/ehrlich

Biographical Narrative:
Dr. Ehrlich is a graduate of Columbia University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She did her postdoctoral research at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. She has been a faculty member at Tulane University Health Sciences Center since 1971 and is a member of the Molecular Genetics Program of the Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium. Dr. Ehrlich is founder, for nine years was president, and is currently a vice-president of the DNA Methylation Society (now the Epigenetics Society), an international scientific society open to all those interested in aspects of epigenetics. Dr. Ehrlich is studying the role of mammalian DNA methylation (naturally occurring 5-methylcytosine) in cancer and the role of chromatin structure in a unique and enigmatic type of muscular dystrophy (facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy; FSHD) dependent on having less than a critical threshold number of tandem 3.3-kb repeats in the subtelomeric region of 4q. This research includes developing new and exciting insights into the influence of unusual DNA structures and long-distance chromatin looping on transcription.

Selected Publications:

• Sun B, Jiang G, Zaydin M, LaRussa V, Safah H, Ehrlich M. ABL1 promoter methylation can exist independently of BCR-ABL transcription in chronic myeloid leukemia hematopoietic progenitors. Cancer Res 61: 6931-6937 (2001).
• Ehrlich M, Buchanan K, Tsien F, Jiang G, Sun B, Uicker W, Weemaes C, Smeets D, Sperling K, Belohradsky B, Tommerup N, Misek D, Kuick R, Hanash S. DNA methyltransferase 3B mutations linked to the ICF Syndrome cause dysregulation of lymphocyte migration, activation, and survival genes. Hum Molec Gen 10: 2917-2931 (2001).
• Ehrlich M. DNA hypomethylation, cancer, the ICF syndrome, and chromosomal rearrangements, J Nutrition 132: 24424S- 2429S (2002). 95. Ehrlich, M. DNA methylation in cancer: too much, but also too little. Oncogene 21: 5400-5413 (2002).
• Ehrlich M, Jiang G, Fiala E, Dome J, Yu M, Long T, Youn B., Sohn O, Widschwendter M, Tomlinson G, Chintagumpala M, Champagne M, Parham D, Liang G, Malik K, Laird P. Hypomethylation and hypermethylation of DNA in Wilms tumors, Oncogene 21: 6694-6702 (2002).
• Ehrlich M, Hopkins N, Jiang G, Dome J, Yu M, Woods C, Tomlinson G, Chintagumpala M, Champagne M, Diller L, Parham D, Sawyer J. Satellite DNA hypomethylation in karyotyped Wilms tumors. Cancer Genet Cytogen, 141: 97-105 (2003).
• Tsien F, Youn B, Fiala E, Laird P, Long T, Weissbecker K, Ehrlich M. Prolonged culture of chorionic villus cells yields ICF syndrome-like chromatin decondensation and rearrangements. Cytogen Genome Res, 98: 13-21 (2003).
• Ehrlich M. Expression of various genes is controlled by DNA methylation during mammalian development, J Cell Biochem, 88: 899-910 (2003).
• Jiang G, Fan Y, Li M, Weissbecker K, Price S, Kim KC, LaRussa V, Safah H, Ehrlich M. In vitro treatment with imatinib (STI571) of hematopoietic precursors shows only limited selectivity for CML cells and may be compromised by silent BCR-ABL genes. Cancer Biol Ther,(2003).
• Jackson, K., Yu, M., Fiala, E., Youn, B., Muller, H.M., Widschwendter, M. and Ehrlich, M. DNA hypomethylation is prevalent even in low-grade breast cancers. Cancer Biol Ther. 3:1225-1231 (2004)
• Grunau, C., Sanchez, C., Ehrlich, M., van der Bruggen, P., Hindermann, W., Rodriguez, C., Krieger, S., Dubeau,L., Fiala, E., & De Sario, A. Frequent DNA hypomethylation of human juxtacentromeric BAGE loci in cancer. Genes Chromosomes Cancer. 43: 11-24. (2005)
• Ehrlich, M. The controversial denouement of vertebrate DNA methylation research. Biochemistry (Mosc). 70: 568-575. (2005)
• Nishiyama, R., Qi, L., Tsumagari, K., Dubeau, L., Weissbecker, K., Champagne, M., Sikka, S., Nagai, H. and Ehrlich, M.A DNA repeat, NBL2, is hypermethylated in some cancers but hypomethylated in others. Cancer Biol. Ther. 4: 440-448 (2005)
• Gisselsson, D., Shao, C., Tuck-Muller, C., Sogorovic, S., Palsson, E., Smeets, D. and Ehrlich, M. Interphase chromosomal abnormalities and mitotic missegregation of hypomethylated sequences in ICF syndrome cells. Chromosoma. 114:118-126 (2005)
• Ehrlich, M., Woods, C., Yu, M., Dubeau, L., Yang, F., Campan, M., Weisenberger, D., Long, T., Youn, B., Fiala,E., and Laird, P. Quantitative analysis of associations between DNA hypermethylation, hypomethylation, and DNMT RNA in ovarian tumors. Oncogene, 25:2636-2645 (2005)
• Nishiyama, R., Qi, L., Lacey, M., and Ehrlich, M. Both hypomethylation and hypermethylation in a 0.2-kb region of a DNA repeat in cancer. Molec. Cancer Res. 3: 617-616 (2005)
• Weisenberger, D.J., Campan, M., Long, T.I., Kim M., Woods C., Fiala E., Ehrlich M., Laird P.W. Analysis of repetitive element DNA methylation by MethyLight. Nucleic Acids Res. 33: 6823-6836 (2005)
• Ehrlich M., Jackson K., Weemaes C. Immunodeficiency, centromeric region instability, facial anomalies syndrome (ICF). Orphanet Encyclopedia, January 2006. http://www.orpha.net/data/patho/GB/uk-ICFsyndrome.pdf     
• Ehrlich, M., Woods, C., Yu, M., Dubeau, L., Yang, F., Campan, M., Weisenberger, D., Long, T., Youn, B., Fiala, E., and Laird, P. Quantitative analysis of associations between DNA hypermethylation, hypomethylation, and DNMT RNA in ovarian tumors. Oncogene, 25:2636-2645 (2006)
•  Alexiadis, V., Ballestas, M.E., Sanchez, C., Winokur, S., Vedanarayanan, V., Warren, M., and Ehrlich, M. RNAPol-ChIP analysis of transcription from FSHD-linked tandem repeats and satellite DNA. Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 1769: 29-40 (2007)
• Ehrlich, M., Jackson, K., Tsumagari, K., Camano, P. and Lemmers, R.J.F.L. Improved hybridization analysis of D4Z4 repeat arrays linked to FSHD. Chromosoma 116: 107-116 (2007)

Contact info: ehrlich@tulane.edu

(504) 988-2449, (504) 988-2739 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-31, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699