Dear Colleagues,

Epigenetic regulatory mechanisms play pivotal roles in both normal development and diseases such as cancer. Of special note is that the cancer actually “re-uses” many of the mechanisms in embryonic development to survive, grow, and invade into other tissues; therefore, it will be useful to compare them in the same special issue. Recent genome-wide studies have led to the discovery of many previously unrecognized cancer-causing genes. An important category of these genes are epigenetic regulators. Exploring the mechanism of action of these genes (and their mutated versions) in the processes of tumorigenesis is critically important to understand the biology of human cancer, and these mechanisms in turn will also further our understanding of normal development, as well as the development-related genetic diseases.

Prof. Xiao-Jian Sun and Prof. Lan Wang

Guest Editors