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

The genome of eukaryotes is packed into a macromolecular structure called chromatin. The basic repeating unit of chromatin is the nucleosome, which forms by the association of two copies each of the four core histones H2A, H2B, H3 and H4 and 147 base pairs of DNA. Histones can be covalently modified and the histone modification status of a region correlates with the regions¹ function. Our group is interested in the interplay between chromatin and its modifications with the transcriptional process. Using both experimental and computational methods our goal is to unravel the dynamic interactions between different states of RNA Polymerase II with histone modifications, their writers, readers and erasers.

PhD involved in research on EpiGeneSys projects:

Johannes Helmuth ­ computational analysis of interactions between RNA Polymerase II phosphorylation states and histone modifications

PostDocs involved in research on EpiGenesys projects:

Na Li ­ experimental mapping of RNA Polymerase II phosphorylation states

Alisa Fuchs ­ dynamics of histone modifications and RNA Polymerase II phosphorylation states during transcription in Drosophila