Laura Banaszynski
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Genetics
Every cell in the body carries the same DNA, yet mammals build more than 200 cell types and keep each one stable for life. Much of this control comes from chromatin, the packaging of DNA around histone proteins, which determines which genes cells can use.
- Fields
Genetics
Biochemistry
Biology
- Topics
chromatin
epigenetics
histone variants
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2027
What they work on
- Determine how phosphorylation of the histone variant H3.3 at its unique serine stimulates p300, an enzyme that acetylates histones, to produce the enhancer mark H3K27ac in mouse embryonic stem cells.
- Determine why H3K27 acetylation in embryonic stem cells depends mainly on p300 rather than on its close relative CBP.
- Ask how H3.3 and p300 promote gene transcription during pre-implantation embryo development, using chemical biology tools and new mouse models.
- Learn how H3.3 is divided between its two chaperone complexes, which place it at active genes or at heterochromatin, and how upsetting this balance affects cell function.
- Define how H3.3 shapes local chromatin marks, directly through phosphorylation or indirectly by recruiting a co-repressor, and study H3.3 in adult tissues and stem cells using mouse models.
More about the research
The lab studies H3.3, a specialized "variant" version of histone H3. Mutations in H3.3 and its partner proteins appear in human cancers and developmental disorders. The lab's two projects ask how H3.3 shapes gene activity: one focuses on how it switches on enhancers during early development, the other on its broader roles across the genome and in adult tissues.
Why it matters
Proteins studied here, including H3.3 and its partners, are mutated in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and pediatric glioblastomas. Enhancer misregulation is also implicated in developmental syndromes and cancer. Understanding how these proteins normally control cell identity could reveal how they cause disease and point to therapeutic opportunities.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Upasna Sharma
University of California-Santa Cruz, CA·Biology
Determine whether Mettl7a1, a predicted RNA methyltransferase that adds methyl tags to RNA, is needed for minor zygotic genome activation and normal early development in mouse preimplantation embryos.
Peter Lewis
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Biochemistry
Define how residual PRC2 activity, the leftover gene-silencing capacity remaining after inhibition, promotes growth of pediatric glioma cells carrying the H3 K27M oncohistone or the EZHIP protein, using genetic and genomic approaches.
Rupa Sridharan
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Genetics
Test how KDM3B, an enzyme that removes the repressive H3K9me2 histone mark, controls DNA demethylation carried out by the Tet enzymes during the transition from the post-implantation epiblast to primordial germ cells.
The school
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: 40 labs on PI Pages, $869M a year on research, 86 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.