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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RNAREG (Single molecule observation and manipulation of gene expression dynamics to dissect mechanisms of cell cycle entry)

Teaser

Summary

Cell division is central to live as a multi-cellular organism. Every human develops from a single cell to a full grown person containing billions of cells through a series of many cell divisions. However, cell division must also be controlled precisely, as excessive cell division might lead to cancer. Importantly, many anti-cancer drugs attempt to target cell division, thereby limiting the proliferation of a tumor. The decision for a cell to undergo a cell division is determined to a large extent the expression control of its genes. Certain genes must turn on for a cell to divide, while other must turn off. In this project we are studying how genes are turned on and off, and how these changes affect cell cycle entry.

Work performed

So far in this project, we have developed new technologies to study gene expression control. Specifically, we have developed a method to visualize gene expression in single living cells using high resolution microscopy, and we have developed a second technique to turn genes on and off at will, using high throughput CRISPR technology. We have applied these technologies to study gene expression changes during the cell cycle, to determine when genes are turned on, on what the molecular mechanisms are that drive these gene expression changes. Furthermore, we have characterized changes in gene expression that occur during the cell cycle, and have identified a set of several hundred genes that show specific regulation.

Final results

We have made several contributions to the research field that go beyond the state of the art. First, we have observed mRNA translation (the final step of gene expression) in real time for the first time in living cells. Second, we have performed quantitative analysis of gene expression changes during the cell cycle with unprecedented temporal resolution. Finally, we have developed new methods to turn every gene in the genome on or off to characterize the effects of gene expression changes on for example cell cycle progression or cancer drug sensitivity. We envision that applying these technologies to a variety of different genes will provide a detailed mechanistic understanding of gene expression control during the cell cycle.