Research Director

Masahiro Shirakawa
Kyoto University
Professor
website
Outline
Pluripotent cells, such as ES and iPS cells, have a unique and characteristic epigenome structure, which is dynamically altered during cell differentiation. The alternation of the entire epigenome structure is facilitated by the modulation of spatial arrangement of DNA methylation/demethylation sites in certain genome region. In this project, we reveal the molecular mechanism underlying the maintenance and alteration of the epigenome structure by studying the structure basis of DNA demethylation and mapping the distribution of DNA methylation/demethylation sites in intranuclear space. We also develop a novel in-cell technique for analyzing maturation and ordering of the cytoskeleton as phenotypic markers reflecting dynamic epigenetic status.