Overcoming Chromatin Barriers to Control Cell Fate
Event Details
- Type
- Friday Lecture Series
- Speaker(s)
-
Kenneth Zaret, Ph.D., Joseph Leidy Professor, department of cell and developmental biology, director, Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
- Speaker bio(s)
-
Since all cells have the same genes, different types of cells express groups of genes specific to their type and repress many genes that antagonize their type. The Zaret Lab studies how cell-specific programs arise during embryonic development and how to apply the principles to change cell fate at will. They found that scanning silent chromatin by pioneer transcription factors, by virtue of their nucleosome binding ability, helps activate genes during cell fate changes. Certain forms of heterochromatin can block pioneer factors and gene activity, to stabilize cell fate. They are modifying heterochromatin and pioneer factors to enhance cell fate changes.
Ken Zaret is the Joseph Leidy Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is the Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He investigates how genes are regulated and different cell types are specified in embryonic development and regeneration. He focuses on dynamics in signaling, transcription factors, and chromatin structure during liver and pancreas development and applies the information to cell fate reprogramming. Ken is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
- Open to
- Tri-Institutional