Biology needs mathematics
Do you drink coffee? Do you care how much milk and sugar you have? Numbers matter. And they matter inside the cell. How many molecules are there? How fast do they move? How long do they stay in one place? I believe that to answer the deep questions of life we need quantitative information. And I believe that “living models” made of equations are a powerful way to understand ideas, question dogma and bring new insights. Leonie Ringrose, March 2020
Our own cup of coffee: Epigenetics
Our research focuses on epigenetic gene regulation. The field of epigenetics aims to understand how a single cell, with a single genome, can give rise to and maintain the extraordinary diversity of different cell types that make up an adult organism. Every cell has the same genome, but a different “epigenome”, which ensures that the DNA code is read differently in each cell.
Polycomb and Trithorax group proteins: essential for life
We focus on the Polycomb (PcG) and Trithorax (TrxG) groups of proteins. These proteins are epigenetic regulators that work antagonistically on the same target genes, to maintain repressed (PcG) or active (TrxG) transcription states. PcG and TrxG proteins act through cis- regulatory DNA elements called Polycomb/Trithorax Response Elements (PRE/TREs). The PcG and TrxG proteins are essential for correct genome function throughout life. Disruption can lead to developmental defects, genome instability and cancer.
Our toolbox
We use a combination of molecular and developmental biology and quantitative live imaging in flies and in mammalian cells, and mathematical and computational modelling.
Our goals
We aim to understand quantitative aspects of how the PcG and TrxG proteins regulate genes, and how the nucleic acid sequence of PRE/TREs affects regulatory output.
PcG and TrxG proteins include histone modifying enzymes
For more information, click here
PEP-NET
Predictive Epigenetics: Fusing Theory and Experiment
EU H2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie Innovative Training Network funded with 4 Million Euros.
Coordinator Leonie Ringrose
The first edition of the text book
"Epigenetics and Systems Biology" (Academic Press) edited by Leonie Ringrose was published in April 2017.
ISBN: 9780128030752
Find more information here.
Epigenetics: Myths, Mysteries and Molecules
Public Lecture by Leonie Ringrose
A lecture in the Horizons Series Horisontforelesninger.
Arranged by The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences University of Bergen, Norway
Polycomb and Trithorax in action
Animation of Polycomb and Trithorax proteins in action, courtesy of Vivomotion.
Polycomb and Trithorax animation