MRC DTG Studentship: Gene recruitment to transcription factories

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

The mammalian genome consists of over 25,000 genes but only about half of them are expressed (copied from DNA to RNA) in any given cell type. Each cell type uses a unique subset of these genes while the rest are packaged away into condensed structures. Rather than being a simple string of DNA sequences, our work and that of others has shown that genes interact with other genes and DNA sequences in the nucleus of cells in ways that can effect their activity. Not only do individual chromosomal strings of DNA fold in certain ways to affect gene activity, genes on different chromosomes can interact in 3 dimensional space to alter or affect gene activity. In this project we will assess the 3 dimensional reorganization that occurs in cell nuclei in which specific genes have been artificially induced to switch on. These experiments will provide vital new information to help us to understand how the genome is co-ordinately controlled during red blood cell production. This information is important to understand the regulatory mechanisms of the genome and how it is controlled in health and disease.

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