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Epigenetics: One Genome, Multiple Phenotypes
2018
Danny Reinberg
Summary of the science
DNA is found wrapped around proteins which helps compacts it. These proteins may be modified by other proteins which 'mark' them by adding another molecule. This can result in the proteins packing more tightly together or loosening up. As other proteins need to physically access the DNA to 'read' their information, this leads to the silencing or activation of genes, respectively. This is called Epigenetics. The Reinberg Lab aims to understand how the proteins responsible for compacting DNA work and how it might be relevant to disease.
About the research
The Reinberg Lab's research is concerned with chromatin and how different epigenetic states can lead to different cellular identities, and the processes underlying the formation of these different states. A key focus of their research is understanding the mechanisms of the Polycomb group (PcG) of proteins which compact chromatin by adding epigenetic marks, resulting in gene silencing. They have also studied how defects in this mechanism may contribute to cancerous phenotypes.
About the illustration