An ambitious EC-funded research initiative on epigenetics advancing towards systems biology 89

Alternative splicing is a key mechanism of cell identity that produces cell-type-specific protein variants from ubiquitously expressed genes. Misregulation of the cell-specific splicing programs impairs cellular function and can lead to disease, including cancer. Traditionally, alternative splicing has been thought to be regulated mainly at the RNA level by combinatorial recruitment of splicing factors to specific RNA-binding sites. However, epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation and histone modifications, chromatin conformation and non-coding RNAs have recently been shown to play a role in alternative splicing regulation. My lab will address the role of epigenetics in establishing and maintaining a cell-specific alternative splicing program and will depict the molecular mechanisms driving this control both at a gene-specific and genome-wide level.

People involved:

• Laetitia Michelle, PhD – postdoc, molecular biologist
• Eneritz Agirre, PhD – postdoc, computer biologist