Despite three decades of successful, predominantly phenotype-driven discovery of the genetic causes of monogenic disorders, up to half of children with severe developmental disorders of probable genetic origin remain without a...
Polycomb-group (PcG) and Trithorax-group proteins together form a maintenance machinery that is responsible for stable heritable states of gene activity. While the best-studied target genes are the Hox genes of the Antennapedia...
Midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neurons are diverse in their projection targets, effect on behavior, and susceptibility to neurodegeneration. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms establishing this diversity during...
BACKGROUND: B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) is amongst the leading causes of childhood cancer-related mortality. Its most common chromosomal aberration is the ETV6-RUNX1 fusion gene, with ~25% of ETV6-RUNX1...
Direct reprogramming is an appealing strategy to generate neurons from a somatic cell by forced expression of transcription factors. The generated neurons can be used for both cell replacement strategies and disease modelling....
In 2020, 146,063 deaths due to pancreatic cancer are estimated to occur in Europe and the United States combined. To identify common susceptibility alleles, we performed the largest pancreatic cancer GWAS to date, including 9040...
Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic process regulated by germline-derived DNA methylation, causing parental origin-specific monoallelic gene expression. Zinc finger protein 57 (ZFP57) is critical for maintenance of this...
Dynamic activity of signaling pathways, such as Notch, is vital to achieve correct development and homeostasis. However, most studies assess output many hours or days after initiation of signaling, once the outcome has been...
Highly coordinated transcription networks orchestrate the self-renewal of pluripotent stem cell and the earliest steps of mammalian development. KRAB-containing zinc finger proteins represent the largest group of transcription...
Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are critically involved in early development and cell differentiation. In humans, dysfunction of the bone morphogenetic protein type II receptor (BMPR-II) is associated with pulmonary arterial...
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) reside at the apex of the hematopoietic differentiation hierarchy and sustain multilineage hematopoiesis. Here, we show that the transcriptional regulator CITED2 is essential for life-long HSC...
NF-κB repressing factor (NKRF) was recently identified as an RNA binding protein that together with its associated proteins, the 5'-3' exonuclease XRN2 and the helicase DHX15, is required to process the precursor ribosomal RNA....
Disease progression in many tumor types involves the interaction of genetically abnormal cancer cells with normal stromal cells. Neoplastic transformation in a Drosophila genetic model of epidermal growth factor receptor...
Krüppel-associated box (KRAB)-containing zinc finger proteins (KZFPs) are encoded in the hundreds by the genomes of higher vertebrates, and many act with the heterochromatin-inducing KAP1 as repressors of transposable elements...
The Sin3A complex acts as a transcriptional hub, integrating the function of diverse transcription factors with histone modifying enzymes, notably, histone deacetylases (HDAC) 1 and 2. The Sin3A protein sits at the centre of the...
Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies are revolutionizing the diagnostic screening for rare disease entities, including primary mitochondrial disorders, particularly those caused by nuclear gene defects. NGS approaches...
Cohesin complex disruption alters gene expression, and cohesin mutations are common in myeloid neoplasia, suggesting a critical role in hematopoiesis. Here, we explore cohesin dynamics and regulation of hematopoietic stem cell...
REST is a transcriptional repressor that targets a group of neuronal genes in non-neuronal cells. In embryonic stem (ES) cells, REST has been implicated in controlling the expression of transcription factor genes that are...
Direct conversion of human fibroblasts into mature and functional neurons, termed induced neurons (iNs), was achieved for the first time 6 years ago. This technology offers a promising shortcut for obtaining patient- and...
In Pseudomonas aeruginosa the RNA chaperone Hfq and the catabolite repression control protein (Crc) govern translation of numerous transcripts during carbon catabolite repression. Here, Crc was shown to enhance Hfq-mediated...
Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2-4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC...