Valentina BoevaInstitut Cochin - Inserm / CNRS / Université Paris Descartes
Mes recherches
My main research topic is understanding the role of epigenetic alterations in cancer, which I study through designing novel computational approaches for data analysis, modelling and data integration. My initial background is in mathematics. After finishing my PhD in biophysics and bioinformatics (2003-2007, Moscow State University), I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in cancer data analysis at Ecole Polytechnique (2007-2008) and then at the Curie institute (2009-2011). Since 2011 and before starting my ATIP-Avenir group at the Cochin institute in 2016, I was holding a research scientist position at Inserm/Curie Institute.
During 3 years of the ATIP-Avenir project, my team got insights in the transcriptional and epigenetic heterogeneity of neuroblastoma (collaboration with I. Janoueix-Lerosey, Curie Institute) and discovered drivers and consequences of DNA hypermethylation in adrenocortical carcinoma (collaboration with G. Assié, Curie Institute). In addition, we initiated several collaborative projects on epigenetic changes and heterogeneity in a variety of human cancers: osteosarcoma, renal carcinoma, melanoma, and myelodysplastic syndromes.
Mon projet ATIP-Avenir
Deciphering the Crosstalk between Genetic and Epigenetic Changes in Cancer
Until recently, cancer was considered to be a disease caused uniquely by genetic modifications: mutations, DNA copy number aberrations and large structural changes of DNA. However, latest studies have demonstrated that tumorigenesis is associated with considerable non-genetic, i.e. epigenetic alterations: changes in the chromatin states and DNA methylation. Over time, it is becoming clear that genetic and epigenetic changes are interconnected and they cooperatively enable the successive failures of the controls on cellular proliferation, apoptosis, invasion and metastasis, which are necessary elements for cancer development and progression.
Currently, my team is mostly working on neuroblastoma and adrenocortical carcinoma, as they share a number of common features related to the establishment of epigenetic profiles. The main objective of the team to discover what epigenetic changes contribute to tumorigenesis in these specific cancer types and understand the origin of such epigenetic changes. In the future, we will extend our analysis to other cancer types through the analysis of public data and generation of novel datasets of epigenetic profiles via collaborations with clinicians (Cochin Institute, Curie Institute, MSKCC, Mayo Clinics). In parallel, we will continue serving the community by developing novel methods for cancer data analysis.