DMMC Course: EPIGENETICS: FROM MECHANISMS TO MEDICINES

0910-0940 Tuesday 26 June 2007. O’Reilly Hall, University College Dublin.

The epigenetic landscape of stem cells.
Dr Kay Nolan (University College Dublin)

Stem cells are characterized by two important properties: the ability to self-renew and the ability to generate progeny that can follow more than one differentiation pathway. If the potential of stem cells as safe and effective therapeutic agents is to be realized, it is important to determine the molecular characters that are responsible for these properties. Recently a number of genome-wide approaches (mainly ChIP on chip) have been used to assess the epigenetic landscape of embryo stem cells. Unifying themes are emerging from these, including the importance of polycomb group (PcG) proteins, the concept of chromatin bivalency etc. This presentation will introduce these topics.