Gilbert Rahme

Gilbert Rahme is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacological Sciences at Stony Brook University's Renaissance School of Medicine and the Cancer Center. He leads the Rahme Lab, which focuses on cancer epigenetics with particular emphasis on brain tumors called gliomas. His research is generously supported by the NIH/NCI, the Renaissance School of Medicine, and the Stony Brook Cancer Center.

Dr. Rahme's research centers on how epigenetic reprogramming drives tumorigenesis and tumor progression, particularly in gliomas. His lab leverages mouse models, human tumor tissues, and computational analyses to discover epigenetic lesions, computationally infer their driver potential, and functionally demonstrate their role in tumorigenesis using in vitro and in vivo approaches. A major focus is understanding how IDH mutant gliomas exhibit epigenetic reprogramming due to CpG hypermethylation driven by 2HG production from mutant IDH.

The Rahme Lab's publications reveal a consistent focus on epigenetic mechanisms in brain cancer, particularly examining DNA methylation, CTCF binding sites, and topologically associated domains (TADs) that define the 3-dimensional shape of the genome. Their research shows how epigenetic lesions can transform oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) and drive gliomagenesis. Recent work published in Cell demonstrates how specific epigenetic lesions underlying hypermethylation can transform OPCs, providing critical insights into glioma development.

• NIH/NCI funding for brain tumor epigenetics research
• Support from Renaissance School of Medicine and Stony Brook Cancer Center

Dr. Rahme actively mentors graduate students and postdocs, with his student Jina Yim recently winning the best poster presentation at the Gloria and Mark Snyder Symposium. The Rahme Lab currently has openings for technicians, graduate students, and postdocs, with particular interest in candidates applying to Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Genetics, and Physiology and Biophysics programs.

The Rahme Lab maintains an active presence at major cancer research conferences, including the American Association for Cancer Research special conference on brain cancer, where Dr. Rahme has presented the lab's work on modeling epigenetic drivers of gliomas.