Cell fate regulation across scales: from epigenetics to tissue dynamics

Date

May 11, 2017

Time

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Speaker

Steffen Rulands

Affiliation

MPI-PKS Dresden

Series

MPI-CBG Thursday Seminar

Language

en

Main Topic

Biologie

Other Topics

Biologie

Host

Alf Honigmann

Description

The development of an organism relies on the tightly orchestrated behaviour of many cells. How do these cells regulate their fate in order to build complex structures, like the heart or the brain? In our group, we employ methods from theoretical physics to study cell fate regulation on different scales – from the interactions of enzymes with the chromatin to the collective behaviour of cells in tissues. In this talk I will first discuss how rapid dynamic changes in the primary layer of epigenetic modifications - DNA methylation – emerge during exit from pluripotency. Using a combination of parallel single-cell genomics and biophysical modelling we observe genome-scale oscillations of DNA methylation in vitro and in vivo. These observations suggest that dynamic changes in DNA methylation may assist in regulating early fate decisions. In the second part of my talk I will then ask what information on cell fate regulation can be extracted from tissue level measurements. I will show that the clonal dynamics in lineage tracing experiments in growing tissues gives rise to tissue-independent (universal) behaviour. Understanding this universality provides a quantitative basis for the interpretation of clonal fate data.

Last modified: May 12, 2017, 9:56:33 AM