Department of Biomolecular Chemistry - University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Host: Dipali Sashital

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“Pioneers, Settlers, and Life on the OregonR Trail: Transcriptional Regulation During Development”

Research in the Harrison lab focuses on how information encoded in the genome is differentially interpreted during organismal development.  Specifically, we study the molecular mechanisms regulating gene expression and how changes in gene expression can drive cell identity.  Because these processes are highly conserved amongst metazoans, we leverage the wide number of tools available to study this regulation in the fruit fly embryo.  Current research in the lab is focused on two conserved developmental transitions: activation of the zygotic genome following fertilization and establishment of an epithelial cell fate.  Both of these transitions require specific, pioneering transcription factors to facilitate dramatic changes in cell fate.

Zygotic genome activation: Pluripotent cells, such as embryonic stem cells, have the ability to become virtually any cell type, and the power to control this capacity could revolutionize both basic research and medicine. While reprogramming has exciting possibilities, the process is extremely inefficient, limiting the future therapeutic benefits.  This inefficiency is due in large part to the fact that the molecular mechanisms driving reprogramming are poorly understood.  By contrast, reprogramming occurs rapidly and efficiently in the early embryo when fertilized eggs are remodeled to become the pluripotent embryonic cells that will eventually generate the adult organism. We are focused on understanding the fundamental molecular mechanisms by which the embryonic genome is rapidly remodeled to create the pluripotent state.