Hamilton Hodges
Baylor College of Medicine, TX·Biochemistry
Every cell has to decide which genes to switch on, and part of that decision depends on how tightly DNA is packed. SWI/SNF complexes are protein machines that use energy from ATP to loosen packed DNA (chromatin) so genes can be read.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Genetics
Pharmacology
- Topics
chromatin remodeling
BAF complex
neuroblastoma
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Apr 2030
What they work on
- Determine how cellular signals influence which binding partners SWI/SNF chromatin remodelers (cBAF, PBAF, GBAF) select, using rapid perturbations in living cells with epigenomic and proteomic readouts.
- Identify the pathways that steer SWI/SNF complexes to particular regions inside the nucleus, using fast-acting chemical biology tools and live-cell microscopy.
- Define how SWI/SNF complexes coordinate with other chromatin regulators through non-catalytic interactions, meaning physical contacts rather than enzyme activity.
- Map how inhibiting SWI/SNF changes DNA accessibility, transcription and cell death at specific cell-cycle stages in neuroblastoma cells, after fast-acting inactivation of the SMARCA4 engine.
- Identify how SWI/SNF inhibition causes replication stress (trouble copying DNA) and cell-cycle deregulation that kill neuroblastoma cells near the G1-S boundary.
- Find synergistic combinations of clinical neuroblastoma drugs and SWI/SNF inhibitors in 2D cells and 3D spheroids, screening out those toxic to human neural crest cells and neurons, then validate them in an immune-competent mouse model.
More about the research
When these machines are misregulated they can drive disease, including childhood cancer. The lab studies both how cells control SWI/SNF activity in normal biology and whether blocking it can treat neuroblastoma.
Why it matters
Children with high-risk neuroblastoma have about a 50% five-year survival rate, and current intensive therapy can cause hearing loss, nerve damage and other lasting harm. Identifying drug combinations that exploit tumor dependence on SWI/SNF, while sparing normal neurons, could support clinical trials of more effective and less toxic treatments. More broadly, learning how cells control SWI/SNF may open new ways to steer gene expression in healthy and diseased cells.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
April M. Weissmiller
Middle Tennessee State University, TN·Biochemistry
Map which genes are bound and regulated by N-MYC and its partner proteins WDR5 and G9a in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cells, using genetic, genomic, and chemical-biology approaches to see how combined inhibition reshapes N-MYC-driven transcription.
Shinya Watanabe
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Biochemistry
Define the roles of brain- and heart-specific DPF1 and DPF3 in the cBAF remodeling complex by rebuilding cBAF with DPF1, DPF2, DPF3 or no DPF protein and comparing nucleosome binding, sliding and ATPase activity.
Pin-Xian Xu
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY·Genetics
Test whether removing Brg1, part of the Brg1-BAF chromatin remodeling complex, from Eya1-expressing inner ear progenitors at different stages closes off enhancers that guide sensory and neuronal fate.
The school
Baylor College of Medicine: 38 labs on PI Pages, $881M a year on research, 115 research doctorates a year.
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