Quantitative Issues in Cancer Research Working Seminar

Jill Lundell, Ph.D.
Research Fellow, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

“Using Wavelets to Find Long and Short Regions Differentially Methylated Regions”

ABSTRACT: Methylation patterns differ between cancer cells and normal cells. The patterns are complex with both long and short differentially methylated regions intermixed across the genome. Current methods either identify long DMRs or identify DMRs in very short regions. Wavelets were developed to find signals with both broad patterns and abrupt shifts and can be helpful with teasing out the complex patterns of methylation. However, genetic data present difficulties in wavelet application. I am working on a method that will address these difficulties and ultimately provide automated complex pattern detection in methylation data.