Shinya Watanabe
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Biochemistry
DNA in our cells is wrapped around spools of proteins called histones, forming units called nucleosomes. Whether a gene can be read depends partly on molecular machines that slide, loosen or move these spools.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Genetics
Biophysics
- Topics
chromatin remodeling
BAF complex
mSWI/SNF
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Define the roles of brain- and heart-specific DPF1 and DPF3 in the cBAF remodeling complex by rebuilding cBAF with DPF1, DPF2, DPF3 or no DPF protein and comparing nucleosome binding, sliding and ATPase activity.
- Test whether DPF1 and DPF3 affect cBAF's ability to transfer histone octamers (the protein spools DNA wraps around) between DNA molecules, using assays the lab developed for this activity.
- Examine how histone modifications recognized by DPF1 and DPF3, chemical tags on the spool proteins, change the remodeling activity of purified BAF complexes.
- Determine whether PHF10, a subunit found only in the PBAF complex, is required for PBAF's nucleosome binding, sliding, ATPase and histone octamer transfer activities by comparing complexes built with and without PHF10.
More about the research
One family of such machines, the BAF complexes (also called mammalian SWI/SNF), is needed for brain development. Its parts are mutated in more than 20% of human cancers and in several neurodevelopmental disorders. Yet what many individual BAF parts actually do at the molecular level is largely unknown.
Why it matters
Mutations in BAF subunits cause neurodevelopmental disorders such as Coffin-Siris syndrome and are common in cancer. Pinning down what DPF1, DPF3 and PHF10 do could explain how these mutations cause disease. It could also point to new strategies for targeting these proteins in treatment and drug development.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Vipul Shukla
Northwestern University, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Define how the Arid1a-dependent cBAF complex, a DNA-packaging remodeler, controls which genes are accessible and active as germinal center B cells mature, testing whether it establishes the germinal center gene program.
Mohammad Nazim
Case Western Reserve University, OH·Neuroscience
Determine how the DPF2 splicing switch from the short to the brain-specific long form shapes neuronal and non-neuronal cell types, using CRISPR-edited embryonic stem cells differentiated into glutamatergic neurons and mice expressing only one form.
Hamilton Hodges
Baylor College of Medicine, TX·Biochemistry
Determine how cellular signals influence which binding partners SWI/SNF chromatin remodelers (cBAF, PBAF, GBAF) select, using rapid perturbations in living cells with epigenomic and proteomic readouts.
The school
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School: 29 labs on PI Pages, $350M a year on research, 55 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.