An ambitious EC-funded research initiative on epigenetics advancing towards systems biology

What defines the identity of a cell? How do epigenetic mechanism regulate cell fate transitions? How does the metabolism impact on epigenetic regulation? Can we exploit this knowledge for the development of tools for disease management?

These are the questions we address in our research. A strong and basic line of investigation is centered on the histone variant macroH2A. We study its function and regulation on the physiological and molecular level. Other projects focus on novel epigenetic regulators of stem cell function and chromatin alterations involved in oncogenic transformation. A particular interest in the lab is to understand how modulations of the central metabolism affect regulatory epigenetic mechanisms on chromatin.

For the study of stem cell function we rely on plastic cell culture models including different mouse ES cells, muscle precursor cells and human primary keratinocytes and their oncogenic derivatives. Strong results are further validated in a limited number of in vivo experiments using xenografts or tissue regeneration protocols.

Lab members (from second left to right):

• Catherine Creppe, Postdoc
• Melanija Posavec, PhD student
• Anna Palau, PhD student
• Vanesa Valero, Technician
• Neus Cantariño, PhD student
• Roberto Malinverni, Postdoc
• Julien Douet, Postdoc