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Epigenetics and stem cell biology
Dr Véronique Azuara and her colleagues investigate how the DNA genetic code, which is identical in all of an individual’s cells, can be influenced to produce the wide variety of tissues that make up our body.
Liver, nerves or blood cells are produced in a reproducible pattern in every person, but how this is regulated is poorly understood. It is now clear that the proteins which organise the DNA (into ‘chromatin’) varies in different cell types, so understanding the regulation of this process will show how cells differentiate and develop normally or abnormally.
A major focus of her current research is understanding how genetic information is organised in stem cells. Embryonic stem (ES) cells, the cells which eventually make all the different tissues in the body, are remarkable because they can either self-renew or give rise to many different cell types. But in the process of generating different cell types, a stem cell must alter the structural organisation (i.e. chromatin) of its DNA code. Veronique’s research group is attempting to unravel the unique chromatin ‘make-up’ of embryonic ES cells and their counterparts in the early embryo that provides them with flexibility and unlimited cell fate options. Understanding how a cell identity is defined in the course of development is not only of intrinsic interest in basic science, but it will also help us to understand how a cell identity might be lost or changed in the case of many diseases, including cancers and abnormalities of pregnancy.