Scott J. Diede, MD, PhD is an Attending Physician in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Seattle Children’s Hospital, an Acting Clinical Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington, and a Research Associate in the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
His current research falls into two primary areas: (1) delineating the mechanism of gene amplification in cancer and (2) understanding the role of epigenetic alterations in the formation of cancer. Previous work has shown that de novo DNA palindrome formation occurs in cancer cells and provides a structural platform for subsequent gene amplification. His long-term goals are to determine the molecular process leading to palindrome formation and map the regions of the genome susceptible to this form of genomic instability in cancer cells. His broad hypothesis is that palindrome formation is an illegitimate form of DNA double-strand break repair that shapes the cancer genome by setting the boundaries of gene amplification in human cancers and may contribute to the process of oncogenesis. His second research interest involves the role of aberrant DNA methylation in carcinogenesis. He has recently developed a new genome-wide assay to detect DNA methylation. As proof of principle that this technique can identify biologically relevant loci from patient samples, common regions of cancer-specific methylation changes in primary medulloblastoma samples were found that implicate specific regulatory pathways and represent potential biomarkers. It is hoped that this work will aid in biomarker development for cancer detection, diagnosis, and assessment of response to therapy and recurrence.