Creyghton group

Epigenetics and stem cell development

A major unresolved challenge in biology is to decipher how cells can exist in the diverse cellular states that make up a functional organism while carrying the same genomic information.
Cell identity is determined by specific developmental programs that impose an epigenetic signature upon the genome. As such these signatures are often found deregulated in developmental abnormalities and later onset disease.
Our goal is to understand the complexity of the epigenetic landscape and its role during development, aging and disease progression through large scale sequencing analysis, combined with in vitro stem cell based assays and model organisms and use this understanding to control cell state.

About the research

Key publications
Creyghton, M.P., Cheng, A., Welstead, G.G., Kooistra, T., Carey, B.W., Steine, E.J., Hanna, J., Lodato, M.A., Frampton ,G.M., Sharp, P.A., Boyer, L.A., Young, R.A., Jaenisch, R. (2010) Histone H3K27ac seperates active from poised enhancers and predicts developmental state. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 107: 21931-21936.

Hanna, J., Saha, K., Pando, B., van Zon, B., Lengner, C.J., Creyghton, M.P., van Oudenaarden, A., Jaenisch, R. (2009) Direct reprogramming is a stochastic process amenable to acceleration. Nature 462: 595-601.

Creyghton, M.P., Markoulaki, S., Levine, S., Hanna, J., Lodato, M.A., Sha, K., Young, R.A., Jaenisch, R., Boyer, L.A. (2008) H2AZ if enriched at polycomb complex target genes in ES cells and is necessary for lineage commitment. Cell 135: 649-661.

Hanna, J., Markoulaki, S., Schorderet, P., Carey, B.W., Beard, C., Wernig, M., Creyghton, M.P., Steine, E.J., Cassady, J.P., Foreman, R., Lengner, C.J., Dausman, J.A., Jaenisch, R. (2008) Direct reprogramming of terminally differentiated mature B lymphocytes to pluripotency. Cell 133: 250-264.

Creyghton, M.P., Roël, G., Eichhorn, P.J., Vredeveld, L.C., Destrée, O., Bernards, R.  (2006) PR130 is a modulator of the Wnt-signaling cascade that counters repression of the antagonist  Naked cuticle.  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.. 103: 5397-5402.

Publication list