EMBO Member
EPFL, Lausanne | Switzerland
EMBO 2009
Long active in the study of interactions between viral pathogens and their hosts and in the development of gene-based therapies, our lab shifted its research a few years ago, to devote that largest part of its effort to epigenetics. Our ambition is to decipher the roles and mechanisms of action of the largest family of transcriptional regulators encoded by higher vertebrates, the KRAB-containing zinc finger proteins (KRAB-ZFPs), and of their cofactor KAP1. Our work has started to reveal that, in a bit more than three-hundred millions of years, the KRAB/KAP epigenetic regulation system has evolved from a line of defense against genetic invaders to a master regulator of mammalian homeostasis.
Keywords: KRAB-ZFPs / epigenetics / retroelements / transcription / physiology
Subject area(s): Chromatin & Transcription | Microbiology, Virology & Pathogens | Molecular Medicine