The leading research into Rett syndrome in New Zealand is conducted by Dr Mike Sullivan and his team at the Children's Cancer Research Group at the Christchurch School of Medicine (University of Otago).

Mike's team has a particular interest in the study of histone modification and methylation in cancer. Recently it has been shown that MeCP2, which is responsible for Rett syndrome, participates in the process of histone modification and this may underpin the disruption of gene expression seen in Rett syndrome. The team is currently looking into the role of histone methylation and DNA methylation in childhood cancer, and has recently prepared several major research grant applications to fund this programme.

The current work includes

• summarising and publishing mutation analysis data from the last five years
• collating recent clinical data supplied by families and paediatricians
• investigating the possible role of abnormal histome modification in various MeCP2 mutations.

The group puts out an occasional newsletter, with details about their research and updates on findings on Rett syndrome. We have issue #1 and issue #3 available for downloading in PDF format. (If you do not have Acrobat Reader for reading PDF files, follow this link to download the program.)

The New Zealand Rett Syndrome Association has had a long-standing collaboration with Dr Mike Sulivan and is proud to assist in his research.