Project (Ufuk Günesdogan)

Our newly established group studies mammalian primordial germ cells (PGCs), which are specified during embryonic development. Subsequently, PGCs undergo extensive transcriptional and epigenetic changes, before they give rise to sperm or egg. This project focuses on mechanisms that control the transcriptional programme during the differentiation of PGCs investigating non-coding regulatory DNA elements as well as epigenetic modifications. To study PGC differentiation, we employ an integrated approach using in vitro and in vivo model systems for PGC differentiation, genome-wide techniques (e.g. ChIP-Seq, RNA-Seq), CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing and chromosome conformation capture techniques.

Applications are invited from candidates with a background in life sciences (ideally in developmental biology/epigenetics) and a strong interest in computational approaches.


Publications:

Murakami, K.*, Günesdogan, U.*, Zylicz, J. J., Tang, W. W. C., Sengupta, R., Kobayashi, T., Kim, S., Butler, R., Dietmann, S. and Surani, M. A. (2016).
NANOG alone induces germ cells in primed epiblast in vitro by activation of enhancers. Nature 529, 403–407.

Günesdogan, U. and Surani, M. A. (2016).
Developmental Competence for Primordial Germ Cell Fate. Curr. Top. Dev. Biol. 117, 471–496.

Zylicz, J. J., Dietmann, S., Günesdogan, U., Hackett, J. A., Cougot, D., Lee, C. and Surani, M. A. (2015).
Chromatin dynamics and the role of G9a in gene regulation and enhancer silencing during early mouse development. Elife 4.

Kim, S., Günesdogan, U., Zylicz, J. J., Hackett, J. A., Cougot, D., Bao, S., Lee, C., Dietmann, S., Allen, G. E., Sengupta, R., et al. (2014).
PRMT5 Protects Genomic Integrity during Global DNA Demethylation in Primordial Germ Cells and Preimplantation Embryos. Mol. Cell 56, 564–579.

Günesdogan, U., Magnúsdóttir, E. and Surani, M. A. (2014).
Primordial germ cell specification: a context-dependent cellular differentiation event. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 369.




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