Congressman Cohen Announces $322,438 Grant for St. Jude Children’s Hospital

The grant will fund Dr. Janet F. Partridge, an Assistant Member of the Department of Biochemistry, in her research of the establishment of heterochromatin, a tightly packaged form of DNA. Dr. Partridge has been studying how the heterochromatin is formed, and is currently working to determine how mutations in the heterochromatin contribute to cancer and Down syndrome.

“I am very grateful that HHS is funding the important work of scientists like Dr. Partridge at St. Jude,” said Congressman Cohen. “The next great medical breakthroughs of our lifetime will come about only when we gain a more thorough understanding of biochemistry and molecular biology. I firmly believe we will always reap rewards when we invest in science, and I commend HHS for again recognizing the efforts of our scientists working in the 9th District.”

Dr. Partridge’s research has yielded important insights into the processes by which human cells divide and replicate. When a human cell divides, it passes on an identical set of chromosones to each new “daughter cell,” and errors in this process of cell division are prevalent in cancer cases and can cause miscarriages or even Down syndrome.

“The cell must establish and then maintain centromeric heterochromatin to ensure that each chromosome pair is stable and securely linked together until it’s time to separate,” said Dr. Partridge in a story released by St. Jude. “Otherwise, the chromosome pairs would drift apart and leave daughter cells with too many or too few chromosomes.”

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Contact:
Marilyn Dillihay, Press Secretary, (202) 225-3265/ (202) 368-9275 (mobile)
Charlie Gerber, Communications Assistant, (202) 225-3265 / (202) 320-2817 (mobile)