Minoree Kohwi
Columbia University, NY·Genetics
A small set of neural progenitor cells, the stem-like cells that build the brain, produces an enormous variety of neurons, all from the same genome. A leading idea is that the way DNA is folded and positioned inside the nucleus decides which genes each cell can use.
- Fields
Genetics
Neuroscience
Biology
- Topics
Drosophila
fruit fly
neuroblasts
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2030
What they work on
- Determine how genome organization in Drosophila neuroblasts is regulated over development by combining genetics with high-throughput profiling of purified, stage-specific neuroblasts.
- Test how a 250-base-pair DNA element in the hunchback gene, and similar sequences mapped genome-wide, direct genes to the nuclear lamina and control which genes descendant neurons can express.
- Test how a condensate-forming regulatory factor controls relocation of hunchback to the nuclear edge and the neuroblast's competence to make early-born neurons.
- Profile genome-wide chromatin interactions in neuroblasts purified from different embryonic stages, and test how chromatin factors that regulate hunchback relocation drive genome reorganization.
- Test how the phase-separation properties of a neuroblast nuclear factor, its ability to form droplet-like compartments, set the timing of genome reorganization in vivo.
More about the research
Progenitors pass through timed windows of 'competence', the ability to make a given neuron type, so their genome organization must change over time. It is still unclear which level of organization actually matters for gene activity, and studying it is hard because the relevant features are averaged away in mixed cell samples. Both projects address this using neuroblasts (NBs), the neural progenitors of the fruit fly Drosophila. Earlier work showed that hunchback (hb), a gene that marks early-born neurons, moves to the edge of the NB nucleus mid-development. There it becomes permanently silenced, so later-born neurons can no longer switch it on. Moving a gene therefore ends the progenitor's competence to make early-born neurons.
Why it matters
This is basic research into how a limited pool of brain progenitor cells produces the right neuron types at the right time. Revealing how the three-dimensional folding of the genome is regulated and changed during development adds to understanding of how neural identity arises. It could eventually inform studies of how brain cell diversity is built and maintained.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sarah Siegrist
University of Virginia, VA·Neuroscience
Identify the intrinsic differences between Drosophila neural stem cells that divide only when nutrients are available and the subset that divides regardless of diet, using genetic approaches and single-cell sequencing.
G Greg Wang
Duke University, NC·Biochemistry
Characterize how the previously unstudied intrinsically disordered region of the RNA-binding protein MSI2 drives liquid-liquid phase separation, using purified proteins in vitro and in living cells.
Kenneth Irvine
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Biology
Determine how phase-separated condensates of Warts with Jub, and Jub-promoted phosphorylation of the Warts N-terminus, inhibit this Hippo pathway kinase in Drosophila tissues.
The school
Columbia University: 89 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
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