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Pioneers, Settlers, and Life on the OregonR trail: Transcriptional Regulation During Development
The CHOP Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine Presents a Lecture Series:
Pioneers, Settlers, and Life on the OregonR Trail: Transcriptional Regulation During Development
HOST:
Mustafa Mir, PhD, Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine
SPEAKER:
Melissa Harrison, PhD, Associate Professor
Department of Biomolecular Chemistry
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
About Dr. Harrison's Research:
The DNA genome is differentially interpreted over development, ensuring expression of genes where and when they are needed. The long-standing focus of the Harrison lab is on this essential biological process and the mechanisms by which the cis-regulatory modules that govern gene expression are reprogrammed to cause dramatic changes in cell fate. Leveraging the strengths of the Drosophila system, the research team is defining the fundamental mechanisms that drive conserved developmental transitions. They have shown that these transitions rely on transcription factors with unique properties that allow them to define cis-regulatory regions. These proteins have the defining characteristics of pioneer transcription factors. Pioneer factors are distinctive in that, unlike other transcription factors, they can bind to DNA in the context of nucleosomes. This feature allows them unique access to the genome and helps to redefine the chromatin accessibility landscape. Work from Dr. Harrison's lab has demonstrated the essential roles of multiple pioneer transcription factors that cooperate to reprogram the specified genomes of the sperm and the egg to the totipotent state. The team's studies of these factors at multiple developmental stages uncovered differential regulation of pioneer-factor function and demonstrated the establishment of barriers to pioneer-factor mediated reprogramming over development. Because of the conserved roles of pioneer factors in driving cell-fate transitions, this work has fundamental implications for identifying limitations to efficient cellular reprogramming.
WHEN:
Friday, March 5, 2021 at 12:00-1:00 pm
WHERE:
Virtually, via Zoom
Webinar ID: 824 7171 1051
Passcode: 376828
Please email Samantha Cole at colest@chop.edu if you would like to meet the speaker.