Heritable traits have long revolved around genomic DNA, yet emerging research redefines our understanding of inheritance. In our laboratory, we embark on a captivating journey into the world of small RNAs and their role in epigenetic inheritance, employing the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. During my talk, I will unveil the profound influence of small RNAs in trait inheritance. I will present a compelling case study demonstrating how small RNAs gradually reduce fertility across successive...
Speaker:
Jan Rehwinkel, PhD
Genopolys amphitheater
Nucleic Acid Sensing by Innate Immune Receptors- A journey from MDA5 to cGAS
Jan is a Professor in the Medical Sciences Division at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the molecular biology of the activation and regulation of innate immune receptors that survey the cytosol, including the role of nucleic acid sensing in inflammatory diseases and in cancer. Jan is also interested in the molecular mechanisms underlying host-pathogen interactions. His work lies at the intersection of immunology, virology and molecular biology.
Speaker:
Bennett Van Houten (UPMC-Hillman Cancer Center, PA, USA)
Genopolys, Room Rotonde
A new single molecule approach to study DNA repair protein dynamics: seeing is believing
This seminar will present a new rapid and robust method for single molecule analysis of DNA binding proteins from nuclear extracts (SMADNE) of human cells expressing a fluorescently tagged protein of interest (Schaich et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 2023 Apr 24;51(7):e39). SMADNE when combined with the LUMICKS C-trap provides unprecedented observations of DNA repair protein dynamics on damaged DNA. Over the last 18 months our group has been able to analyze the dwell times of 30 proteins or protein variants...
Speaker:
Patrick Lomonte (Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1)
IGH seminars room
Epigenetic control of herpes simplex virus 1 latency
The establishment of latent herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infection involves an intricate interplay of cellular and molecular processes. On the epigenetic front, this entails viral chromatinization and the interaction between latent episomal viral genomes and the cell's nucleus. Promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies (PML NBs) are nuclear membrane-less organelles responding to interferon stimuli, and playing a major role in the transcriptional regulation of HSV-1 latent genomes through an intrinsic...
Mammalian genomes contain hundreds of lamina-associated domains (LADs), which are large, often megabase-sized heterochromatin domains that are anchored to the nuclear lamina (NL). Even though LADs play a key role in the spatial organization of the genome and potently repress gene activity, it is not yet understood how their interactions with the NL are encoded in their DNA. Here, we investigated the principles that govern LAD-NL interactions by taking a "LAD scrambling" approach. This approach relies...
