Dr Srinjan Basu

We are interested in how chromatin binding proteins regulate genome architecture and gene expression during pluripotent stem cell fate transitions and why they are often misregulated during early cancer progression. Single-cell approaches are key to understand how these proteins work due to the considerable cell heterogeneity that occurs during stem cell fate transitions. In recent years, we have developed several biophysical and computational approaches to answer these questions. For example, we have established a method combining imaging and single-cell Hi-C to study genome architecture inside individual embryonic stem cells. To understand how proteins interact with each other and with chromatin, we have set up several in vitro and live-cell single-molecule imaging approaches capable of localising single proteins at <15 nm resolution. We are continuing to develop novel single-cell and single-molecule imaging approaches to gain insight into the role of key protein complexes involved in regulating poised genes during stem cell differentiation.

Prof Jenny Nichols (PDN)
Dr Thorsten Boroviak (PDN)
Dr Kevin Chalut (Dept. of Physics)
Dr David Klenerman (Dept. of Chemistry)
Prof Francis Stewart (TU Dresden)