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

The Johnsen group aims to uncover epigenomic mechanisms controlling tumorigenesis and stem cell differentiation. For example, we have uncovered a previously unknown role for H2Bub1 in controlling mesenchymal stem cell differentiation (Karpiuk, et al., 2012) which nicely supports our previous work demonstrating decreased global H2Bub1 levels in more undifferentiated, higher grade breast tumors (Prenzel, et al., 2011).

The ongoing and future efforts of the Johnsen laboratory are to identify epigenetic regulatory mechanisms which influence tumorigenic properties and/or differentiation and re-programming potential of stem and somatic cells. We are utilizing high throughput sequencing approaches (ChIP-seq and RNA-seq) to integrate transcriptome analyses, epigenome mapping studies and perturbation of various epigenetic regulatory pathways to uncover systems biological interactions. The long-term goal of this work is to uncover specific epigenetic regulatory mechanisms which may be utilized alone or in combination with other targeted approaches to specifically alter cellular phenotype in a directed manner.

Lab members:

Principle investigators:

• Prof. Dr. Steven A. Johnsen, Laboratory head
• Prof. Dr. Hans Will, Senior professor

Postdocs:

• Dr. Vijayalakshmi Kari
• Dr. Theresa Gorsler

Doctoral students (natural sciences):

• Upasana Bedi (EURINDA/ERASMUS Mundus fellow)
• Sanjay Kumar Raul (Government of India fellow)
• Sankari Nagarajan (DAAD doctoral fellow)
• Anusha Thota (DAAD doctoral fellow)
• Tareq Hossan (DAAD doctoral fellow)
• Vivek Kumar Mishra
• Simon Baumgart
• Zeynab Najafova
• Wanhua Xie (Chinese Scholarship Council doctoral fellow)

Medical student:

• Carolin Springborn

Technical assistant:

• Julia Spötter