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Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) is a highly aggressive malignancy with distinct clinical and histopathological features whose molecular basis is unresolved. Here we describe a human IBC cell line, A3250, that recapitulates key IBC features in a mouse xenograft model, including skin erythema, diffuse tumor growth, dermal lymphatic invasion, and extensive metastases. A3250 cells express very high levels of the CCL2 chemokine and induce tumors enriched in macrophages. CCL2 knockdown leads to a striking reduction in macrophage densities, tumor proliferation, skin erythema, and metastasis. These results establish IBC-derived CCL2 as a key factor driving macrophage expansion, and indirectly tumor growth, with transcriptomic analysis demonstrating the activation of multiple inflammatory pathways. Finally, primary human IBCs exhibit macrophage infiltration and an enriched macrophage RNA signature. Thus, this human IBC model provides insight into the distinctive biology of IBC, and highlights potential therapeutic approaches to this deadly disease., Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is an aggressive form of breast cancer with a poor prognosis. Here the authors report the characterization of a human IBC cell line recapitulating the clinical and histopathological features of the human disease, and implicating its high level of CCL2 in macrophage infiltration and tumor progression.

Description of the development of Etiologic Index of BRCA1 and BRCA2, a proposed etiologic index, based on genomic variation in tumor cells and matched normal cells, that can be used to evaluate the relevance of germline pathogenic variants (GPVs) in tumor-suppressor genes to the development of individual cancer types.

e15050 Background: Avian paramyxoviruses (APMVs) are negative-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses, of which best known is APMV-1, commonly referred to as Newcastle disease virus (NDV). NDV has been extensively studied as an oncolytic virus (OV) and has been shown to be a promising viral agent for human cancer therapy. We identified APMV-4 as a novel OV from the APMV family, with several advantages over NDV and other classes of OVs. APMV-4 is selective for cancer cells, it is not a human pathogen, there is no pre-existing immunity to this virus in humans, and it can be engineered to deliver various therapeutics. Here, we investigated anti-tumor properties of APMV-4 in mouse tumor models, and the role of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-C (VEGF-C), a key lymphangiogenesis factor, on therapeutic effects of AMPV-4. Methods: Anti-tumor effects of OVs were assessed using B16F10 melanoma and CT26.WT colon carcinoma in syngeneic mouse models. Tumor cells were injected intradermally into the flank, and treatment commenced when tumors reached ̃50mm3. Viruses were injected intratumorally (107 PFU) every two days, for a total of four treatments. For studies of VEGF-C, B16F10 cells were transfected with VEGF-C or with an empty vector. Tumor regression and long-term survival were assessed. Mice in complete remission were re-challenged with tumor cells on the opposite side. High-dimensional immunophenotyping using Aurora Spectral flow cytometry was performed on tumor samples collected 12 hr after the 2nd treatment with OVs. Results: Intratumoral administration of APMV-4 extended survival, promoted tumor elimination and conferred protection against re-challenge in murine colon carcinoma and melanoma tumor models, and was more effective than NDV strain LaSota. Expression of VEGF-C in B16F10 melanoma enhanced anti-tumor effects of APMV-4 or NDV, resulting in complete remission in 100% and 86% of mice, respectively (n = 7). Mice remained tumor-free during the 90-day observation period, and following re-challenge remained tumor-free for more than a year. Protection from tumor development upon re-challenge was observed in 71% and 83% of mice treated with APMV-4 or NDV, respectively. Results are representative of two experiments. VEGF-C expression in tumors induced lymphangiogenesis, which correlated with high T-cell densities. Analysis of tumor immune cell composition by flow cytometry revealed multiple unique T-cell and NK-cell subsets associated with complete remission. Conclusions: These studies identify APMV-4 as a novel oncolytic agent with great therapeutic potential and VEGF-C as potent enhancer of anti-tumor immunity. High anti-tumor efficacy of APMV-4/VEGF-C monotherapy, that in preclinical models leads to tumor eradication, indicates great therapeutic and vaccine potential of APMV-4 when combined with VEGF-C.

Microsatellites (MSs) are tracts of variable-length repeats of short DNA motifs that exhibit high rates of mutation in the form of insertions or deletions (indels) of the repeated motif. Despite their prevalence, the contribution of somatic MS indels to cancer has been largely unexplored, owing to difficulties in detecting them in short-read sequencing data. Here we present two tools: MSMuTect, for accurate detection of somatic MS indels, and MSMutSig, for identification of genes containing MS indels at a higher frequency than expected by chance. Applying MSMuTect to whole-exome data from 6, 747 human tumors representing 20 tumor types, we identified >1, 000 previously undescribed MS indels in cancer genes. Additionally, we demonstrate that the number and pattern of MS indels can accurately distinguish microsatellite-stable tumors from tumors with microsatellite instability, thus potentially improving classification of clinically relevant subgroups. Finally, we identified seven MS indel driver hotspots: four in known cancer genes (ACVR2A, RNF43, JAK1, and MSH3) and three in genes not previously implicated as cancer drivers (ESRP1, PRDM2, and DOCK3).

Retrotransposons are “copy-and-paste” insertional mutagens that substantially contribute to mammalian genome content. Retrotransposons often carry long terminal repeats (LTRs) for retrovirus-like reverse transcription and integration into the genome. We report an extraordinary impact of a group of LTRs from the mammalian endogenous retrovirus-related ERVL retrotransposon class on gene expression in the germline and beyond. In mouse, we identified more than 800 LTRs from ORR1, MT, MT2, and MLT families, which resemble mobile gene-remodeling platforms that supply promoters and first exons. The LTR-mediated gene remodeling also extends to hamster, human, and bovine oocytes. The LTRs function in a stage-specific manner during the oocyte-to-embryo transition by activating transcription, altering protein-coding sequences, producing noncoding RNAs, and even supporting evolution of new protein-coding genes. These functions result, for example, in recycling processed pseudogenes into mRNAs or lncRNAs with regulatory roles. The functional potential of the studied LTRs is even higher, because we show that dormant LTR promoter activity can rescue loss of an essential upstream promoter. We also report a novel protein-coding gene evolution—D6Ertd527e—in which an MT LTR provided a promoter and the 5′ exon with a functional start codon while the bulk of the protein-coding sequence evolved through a CAG repeat expansion. Altogether, ERVL LTRs provide molecular mechanisms for stochastically scanning, rewiring, and recycling genetic information on an extraordinary scale. ERVL LTRs thus offer means for a comprehensive survey of the genome's expression potential, tightly intertwining with gene expression and evolution in the germline.

Chromatin structure has a major influence on the cell-specific density of somatic mutations along the cancer genome. Here, we present a pan-cancer study in which we searched for the putative cancer cell-of-origin of 2,550 whole genomes, representing 32 cancer types by matching their mutational landscape to the regional patterns of chromatin modifications ascertained in 104 normal tissue types. We found that, in almost all cancer types, the cell-of-origin can be predicted solely from their DNA sequences. Our analysis validated the hypothesis that high-grade serous ovarian cancer originates in the fallopian tube and identified distinct origins of breast cancer subtypes. We also demonstrated that the technique is equally capable of identifying the cell-of-origin for a series of 2,044 metastatic samples from 22 of the tumor types available as primaries. Moreover, cancer drivers, whether inherited or acquired, reside in active chromatin regions in the respective cell-of-origin. Taken together, our findings highlight that many somatic mutations accumulate while the chromatin structure of the cell-of-origin is maintained and that this historical record, captured in the DNA, can be used to identify the often elusive cancer cell-of-origin.

BackgroundPrimary liver tissue cancers display consistent increase in global disease burden and mortality. Identification of cell-of-origins for primary liver cancers would be a necessity to expand options for designing relevant therapeutics and preventive medicine for these cancer types. Previous reports on cell-of-origin for primary liver cancers was mainly from animal studies, and integrative research utilizing human specimen data was poorly established.MethodsWe analyzed a whole-genome sequencing data set for a total of 363 tumor and progenitor tissues along with 423 normal tissue epigenomic marks to predict the cell-of-origin for primary liver cancer subtypes.ResultsDespite the mixed histological features, the predicted cell-of-origin for mixed hepatocellular carcinoma / intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma were uniformly predicted as a hepatocytic origin. Individual sample-level prediction revealed differential level of cell-of-origin heterogeneity depending on the primary liver cancer types, with more heterogeneity observed in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas. Additional analyses on the whole genome sequencing data of hepatic progenitor cells suggest these progenitor cells might not a direct cell-of-origin for liver cancers.ConclusionsThese results provide novel insights on the heterogeneous nature and potential contributors of cell-of-origin predictions for primary liver cancers.

Background & Aims Biliary tract cancers (BTCs) are clinically and pathologically heterogeneous and respond poorly to treatment. Genomic profiling can offer a clearer understanding of their carcinogenesis, classification and treatment strategy. We performed large-scale genome sequencing analyses on BTCs to investigate their somatic and germline driver events and characterize their genomic landscape. Methods We analyzed 412 BTC samples from Japanese and Italian populations, 107 by whole-exome sequencing (WES), 39 by whole-genome sequencing (WGS), and a further 266 samples by targeted sequencing. The subtypes were 136 intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (ICCs), 101 distal cholangiocarcinomas (DCCs), 109 peri-hilar type cholangiocarcinomas (PHCs), and 66 gallbladder or cystic duct cancers (GBCs/CDCs). We identified somatic alterations and searched for driver genes in BTCs, finding pathogenic germline variants of cancer-predisposing genes. We predicted cell-of-origin for BTCs by combining somatic mutation patterns and epigenetic features. Results We identified 32 significantly and commonly mutated genes including TP53 , KRAS , SMAD4 , NF1 , ARID1A , PBRM1 , and ATR , some of which negatively affected patient prognosis. A novel deletion of MUC17 at 7q22.1 affected patient prognosis. Cell-of-origin predictions using WGS and epigenetic features suggest hepatocyte-origin of hepatitis-related ICCs. Deleterious germline mutations of cancer-predisposing genes such as BRCA1 , BRCA2 , RAD51D , MLH1 , or MSH2 were detected in 11% (16/146) of BTC patients. Conclusions BTCs have distinct genetic features including somatic events and germline predisposition. These findings could be useful to establish treatment and diagnostic strategies for BTCs based on genetic information. Lay summary We here analyzed genomic features of 412 BTC samples from Japanese and Italian populations. A total of 32 significantly and commonly mutated genes were identified, some of which negatively affected patient prognosis, including a novel deletion of MUC17 at 7q22.1 . Cell-of-origin predictions using WGS and epigenetic features suggest hepatocyte-origin of hepatitis-related ICCs. Deleterious germline mutations of cancer-predisposing genes were detected in 11% of patients with BTC. BTCs have distinct genetic features including somatic events and germline predisposition.

Objective: Breast cancer (BC) is stratified into subtypes with different treatment responses and clinical outcomes, suggesting distinct origins. However, the precise cell of origin (COO) for each subtype remains debated. While previous conclusions were drawn from mice, we here use human cells, which is relevant given the human-mouse differences. Material and methods: We previously demonstrated that mutations correlate with epigenomes (Polak et al, Nature, 2015). Here, random forest regression modeled mutational distributions from 532 BCs across 4 subtypes based on ChIP-seq reads from 6 normal breast cell types. For refining our approach 2, 641 whole genomes across 30 cancer types and 98 epigenetically analyzed normal tissue types were used. Results: First, we confirmed that our method is able to reveal tumor origins across various cancer types by identifying a COO in 28/30 tumor types. Next, we focused on BC discovering that basal-like tumors originated from luminal progenitors and all other subtypes (LumA/B/HER2-enriched) from mature luminal cells. This association held true even when accounting for different mechanisms of homologous recombination repair (HRR). In addition, we found that the origin of basal-like BCs is independent of ethnicity. Conclusion: We here show that it is possible to infer the COO from epigenetic and mutation data. Our BC results indicate that each subtype derives from a cell type along the luminal differentiation hierarchy. In addition, the final histotype appears to be more strongly associated with the COO than the HRR inactivation event. In summary, our findings could lead to improved prevention and treatment of BC.

In cancer, the primary tumour's organ of origin and histopathology are the strongest determinants of its clinical behaviour, but in 3% of new cancer diagnoses, a cancer patient presents with a metastatic tumour and no obvious primary. Challenges also arise when distinguishing a metastatic recurrence of a previously treated cancer from the emergence of a new one. Here we train a deep learning classifier to predict cancer type based on patterns of somatic passenger mutations detected in whole genome sequencing (WGS) of 2606 tumours representing 24 common cancer types. Our classifier achieves an accuracy of 91% on held-out tumor samples from this set.On primary and metastatic samples from an independent cohort, it achieves accuracies of 87% and 85%, respectively. This is double the accuracy of pathologists who were presented with a metastatic tumour without knowledge of the primary. Surprisingly, adding information about driver mutations reduced classifier accuracy. Our results have immediate clinical applicability, underscoring how patterns of somatic passenger mutations encode the state of the cell of origin, and can inform future strategies to detect the source of cell-free circulating tumour DNA.

Primary liver tissue cancer types are renowned to display a consistent increase in global disease burden and mortality, thus needing more effective diagnostics and treatments. Yet, integrative research efforts to identify cell-of-origin for these cancers by utilizing human specimen data were poorly established. To this end, we analyzed previously published whole-genome sequencing data for 384 tumor and progenitor tissues along with 423 publicly available normal tissue epigenomic features and single cell RNA-seq data from human livers to assess correlation patterns and extended this information to conduct in-silico prediction of the cell-of-origin for primary liver cancer subtypes. Despite mixed histological features, the cell-of-origin for mixed hepatocellular carcinoma/intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma subtype was predominantly predicted to be hepatocytic origin. Individual sample-level predictions also revealed hepatocytes as one of the major predicted cell-of-origin for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, thus implying trans-differentiation process during cancer progression. Additional analyses on the whole genome sequencing data of hepatic progenitor cells suggest these cells may not be a direct cell-of-origin for liver cancers. These results provide novel insights on the nature and potential contributors of cell-of-origins for primary liver cancers., Systems biology; Biocomputational method; Gene mutation; Genomics; Cancer research; Bioinformatics-based prediction of cell-of-origin; Primary liver cancers; Integration of epigenome, Genome and single-cell RNA-Seq data.

SummaryGenomic DNA replicates in a choreographed temporal order that impacts the distribution of mutations along the genome. We show here that DNA replication timing is shaped by genetic polymorphisms that act in cis upon megabase-scale DNA segments. In genome sequences from proliferating cells, read depth along chromosomes reflected DNA replication activity in those cells. We used this relationship to analyze variation in replication timing among 161 individuals sequenced by the 1000 Genomes Project. Genome-wide association of replication timing with genetic variation identified 16 loci at which inherited alleles associate with replication timing. We call these “replication timing quantitative trait loci” (rtQTLs). rtQTLs involved the differential use of replication origins, exhibited allele-specific effects on replication timing, and associated with gene expression variation at megabase scales. Our results show replication timing to be shaped by genetic polymorphism and identify a means by which inherited polymorphism regulates the mutability of nearby sequences.

Despite increasing knowledge of tumorigenesis, the identity of the cancer cell-of-origin, i.e. the normal cell type that acquired the cancer-initiating event, remains largely unknown. Our approach of identifying the cell-of-origin is based on two observations: (1) the chromatin structure is cell-specific; and (2) the density of somatic mutations along the genome is associated with the regional profile of chromatin modifications. We have previously developed a method that quantifies the ability to predict the mutational distribution along the cancer genome from the profile of epigenetic modifications in different normal cell types. Here we present the largest application of our method using 2,550 whole genomes representing 32 distinct cancer types. To identify the cell-of-origin, we determined the correlation between the observed density of mutations along the genome and the predicted values based on chromatin modifications from 104 different normal tissue types. The normal cell type that showed the strongest correlation with a specific cancer mutational landscape was the candidate cell-of-origin. We found that in almost all cancer types the cell-of-origin can be characterized solely from DNA sequences. Interestingly, we found that the fallopian tube was the best match for high-grade serous ovarian cancer, providing independent evidence that this is the cancer’s site of origin. For breast cancer we found that the four distinct subtypes best-matched cells from the luminal cell lineage: basal-like breast cancer likely originates from luminal progenitors, whereas all other subtypes from luminal mature cells. This association holds true even when accounting for different alterations in the homologous recombination repair pathway, suggesting that subtypes are more determined by the cell-of-origin than the specific DNA repair defect. In addition, we found that we could identify the cell-of-origin using metastatic samples – a finding that may help in difficult clinical diagnoses. Moreover, we demonstrate that cancer drivers, both germline risk alleles and somatically mutated drivers, reside in active chromatin regions in the respective cell-of-origin. Taken together, our findings indicate that many of the somatic mutations accumulated while the cells maintained a chromatin structure similar to the cell-of-origin (likely occurring prior to transformation). Therefore, this historical record, captured in the DNA, can be used to identify, the often elusive, cancer cell-of-origin. Our approach can ultimately help better understand the potential of particular normal cell types to transform and initiate cancer, as well as the association of the cell-of-origin with tumor subtypes and sensitivity to treatment. Citation Format: Kirsten Kubler, Rosa Karlic, Nicholas J. Haradhvala, Kyungsik Ha, Jaegil Kim, Maja Kuzman, Wei Jiao, Sitanshu Gakkhar, Kent W. Mouw, Lior Z. Braunstein, Olivier Elemento, Andrew V. Biankin, Ilse Rooman, Mendy Miller, Christopher D. Nogiec, Edward Curry, Mari Mino-Kenudson, Leif W. Ellisen, Robert Brown, Alexander Gusev, Cristian Tomasetti, Hong-Gee Kim, Hwajin Lee, Kristian Vlahovicek, Charles Sawyers, Katherine A. Hoadley, Edwin Cuppen, Amnon Koren, Peter F. Arndt, David N. Louis, Lincoln Stein, William D. Foulkes, Paz Polak, Gad Getz. The premalignant state captured in the landscape of somatic mutations can reveal the cancer cell-of-origin [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2727.

Biallelic inactivation of BRCA1 or BRCA2 is associated with a pattern of genome-wide mutations known as signature 3. By analyzing [sim]1, 000 breast cancer samples, we confirmed this association and established that germline nonsense and frameshift variants in PALB2, but not in ATM or CHEK2, can also give rise to the same signature. We were able to accurately classify missense BRCA1 or BRCA2 variants known to impair homologous recombination (HR) on the basis of this signature. Finally, we show that epigenetic silencing of RAD51C and BRCA1 by promoter methylation is strongly associated with signature 3 and, in our data set, was highly enriched in basal-like breast cancers in young individuals of African descent.

The oocyte-to-embryo transition (OET) transforms a differentiated gamete into pluripotent blastomeres. The accompanying maternal-zygotic RNA exchange involves remodeling of the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) pool. Here, we used next generation sequencing and de novo transcript assembly to define the core population of 1,600 lncRNAs expressed during the OET (lncRNAs). Relative to mRNAs, OET lncRNAs were less expressed and had shorter transcripts, mainly due to fewer exons and shorter 5′ terminal exons. Approximately half of OET lncRNA promoters originated in retrotransposons suggesting their recent emergence. Except for a small group of ubiquitous lncRNAs, maternal and zygotic lncRNAs formed two distinct populations. The bulk of maternal lncRNAs was degraded before the zygotic genome activation. Interestingly, maternal lncRNAs seemed to undergo cytoplasmic polyadenylation observed for dormant mRNAs. We also identified lncRNAs giving rise to trans-acting short interfering RNAs, which represent a novel lncRNA category. Altogether, we defined the core OET lncRNA transcriptome and characterized its remodeling during early development. Our results are consistent with the notion that rapidly evolving lncRNAs constitute signatures of cells-of-origin while a minority plays an active role in control of gene expression across OET. Our data presented here provide an excellent source for further OET lncRNA studies.

How the cell lineage influences a tissue's susceptibility to malignant transformation is a fundamental question in cancer biology, which has been barely addressed in cancer genomics thus far. Cell properties are encoded in the cell type-specific chromatin structure and we previously demonstrated that the cell-of-origin (COO) chromatin organization is a key determinant of the landscape of somatic mutations, which accumulated over lifetime serving as a memory of the historical cell lineage (Polak et al, Nature , 2015). We now show that this principle is generalizable to common tumor types and offers insights into the molecular events of cancer initiation. We extended our work to 2,641 genomes from 30 cancer types and epigenetic modifications from 98 normal tissues. In 25 cancer types, the tumor originated from a cell type that was its direct cellular counterpart or a close proxy; in only two, there was no match or a close proxy; and in the remaining three (esophageal, pancreatic ductal and biliary adenocarcinoma) the best matched cell type suggested metaplasia to stomack mucosa like tissue.The cellular context of breast tumor formation was investigated in more detail, showing that the COO, and not the gene inactivation event, determines the subtype. Basal-like tumors appeared to arise from luminal progenitor cells, while all other subtypes arose from mature luminal cells. Furthermore, irrespective of the inactivation mechanism (pathogenic germline, somatic truncating or epigenetic silencing event), all BRCA1/2- and RAD51C-altered basal-like tumors best matched to luminal progenitors while BRCA1/2- and CHEK2 -mutated luminal A/B subtypes best matched mature luminal cells. Finally, we observed that tumor type-specific driver genes reside in genomic regions that are defined by a highly active chromatin environment in their COOs. This highlights their essential role in cell type differentiation and implies the acquisition of somatic mutations early, when the chromatin architecture still reflected the COO. Taken together, our findings shed light on the crucial role of the COO in shaping the mutational landscape and tumor evolution. Citation Format: Paz Polak, Rosa Karlic, Kirsten Kubler, William D. Foulkes, Gad Getz. The mutation landscape of cancers serves as a record of early malignant transformation [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3304.

Histones are frequently decorated with covalent modifications. These histone modifications are thought to be involved in various chromatin-dependent processes including transcription. To elucidate the relationship between histone modifications and transcription, we derived quantitative models to predict the expression level of genes from histone modification levels. We found that histone modification levels and gene expression are very well correlated. Moreover, we show that only a small number of histone modifications are necessary to accurately predict gene expression. We show that different sets of histone modifications are necessary to predict gene expression driven by high CpG content promoters (HCPs) or low CpG content promoters (LCPs). Quantitative models involving H3K4me3 and H3K79me1 are the most predictive of the expression levels in LCPs, whereas HCPs require H3K27ac and H4K20me1. Finally, we show that the connections between histone modifications and gene expression seem to be general, as we were able to predict gene expression levels of one cell type using a model trained on another one.

Microsatellites (MSs) are tracts of variable-length repeats of short DNA motifs that are abundant in the human genome and exhibit high rates of mutations in the form of insertions or deletions of the repeated motif (MS indels). Despite their prevalence, the contribution of somatic MS indels to cancer is largely unexplored due to difficulties in detecting them and assessing their significance. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of MS indels across 20 tumor types. We characterize the overall MS indel landscape and detect genes with candidate driver MS indel events. We present two novel tools: MSMuTect for accurate detection of somatic MS indels and MSMutSig for identifying candidate cancer genes containing events at higher frequency than expected by chance. We observe high variability of the frequency of MS indels across tumors and demonstrate that the number and pattern of MS indels can accurately distinguish microsatellite stable (MSS) tumors from tumors with microsatellite instability (MSI). Applying MSMutSig across 6,788 tumors from 20 different tumor types identified 7 genes with significant MS indel hotspots: ACVR2A, RNF43, DOCK3, MSH3, ESRP1, PRDM2 and JAK1. In the four genes that have been previously implicated in cancer (ACVR2A, RNF43, JAK1 and MSH3), we identified previously unreported MS indels events. Three of the genes with significant loci - DOCK3, PRDM2 and ESRP1- had not been previously listed as cancer genes. MS indels in DOCK3, a negative regulator of the WNT pathway, were mutually exclusive with mutations in CTNNB1. MS indels in ESRP1, an RNA processing gene, correlated with alternative splicing of FGFR2, an event associated with the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Overall, our comprehensive analysis of somatic MS indels across cancer highlights their importance, particularly in MSI tumors, significantly contributes to the ongoing global efforts to detect cancer genes, and may improve classification of patients into clinically-relevant subgroups. Citation Format: Yosef E. Maruvka, Kent W. Mouw, Rosa Karlic, Rasanna Parasuraman, Atanas Kamburov, Paz Polak, Nicholas J. Haradhvala, Julian M. Hess, Esther Rheinbay, Yehuda Brody, Lior Z. Braunstein, Alan D’Andrea, Michael S. Lawrence, Adam Bass, Andre Bernards, Franziska Michor, Gad Getz. The landscape of somatic microsatellite indels across cancer: detection and identification of driver events [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-280. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-LB-280

The reference human genome sequence set the stage for studies of genetic variation and its association with human disease, but epigenomic studies lack a similar reference. To address this need, the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Consortium generated the largest collection so far of human epigenomes for primary cells and tissues. Here we describe the integrative analysis of 111 reference human epigenomes generated as part of the programme, profiled for histone modification patterns, DNA accessibility, DNA methylation and RNA expression. We establish global maps of regulatory elements, define regulatory modules of coordinated activity, and their likely activators and repressors. We show that disease- and trait-associated genetic variants are enriched in tissue-specific epigenomic marks, revealing biologically relevant cell types for diverse human traits, and providing a resource for interpreting the molecular basis of human disease. Our results demonstrate the central role of epigenomic information for understanding gene regulation, cellular differentiation and human disease., National Human Genome Research Institute (U.S.) (RC1HG005334), National Human Genome Research Institute (U.S.) (R01HG004037), National Human Genome Research Institute (U.S.) (R01HG004037-S1), National Human Genome Research Institute (U.S.) (RO1NS078839), National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CAREER Award 1254200)