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

Understanding pluripotency – the ability of stem cells to become different cell types – is one of the central questions in modern biology. In my lab we are tackling this question from a chromatin perspective. Since all genetic information is stored within the DNA and hence within chromatin, understanding chromatin structure, function and regulation is key to understanding all biological processes in the mammalian cell. We are combining single cell live imaging studies, allowing us to follow chromatin changes as they occur in living cells, with high-throughput genomic technologies and computation analyses, to depict a system-level understanding of the mechanisms that operate to control pluripotency, and unravel the chromatin-related regulation of the stem cell state.

Post-docs and students involved in research that is in line with the goals of EpiGeneSys:

• Dr. Raghu Ram – Chromatin regulation in stem cells, live microscopy
• Alva Biran – Chromatin during reprogramming and in cancer stem cells
• David Gokhman – Computational analyses of chromatin regulation in ES cells
• Arigela Harikumar – Chromatin regulation in stem cells, live microscopy
• Ilana Livyatan – Non-polyadenylated transcription in ES cells, computational biology
• Matan Sorek – Single stem cell analyses, computational biology
• Yair Aaronson – Alternative splicing analyses in ES cells