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Ontogenesis and molecular interactions
| Video: presentation of research topics developped by the team of Samir Merabet (in french). |
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Research project
Embryonic development relies primarily on highly complex and dynamic molecular interactions. Our team is interested in the understanding of the molecular networks established by a well-conserved family of transcription factors, the Hox proteins. We are tackling the question of Hox interactomes during normal developmental processes (in the Drosophila embryo) but also in a pathological context reproducing aberrant Hox activities in human myeloid leukaemia.
EXPERIMENTAL APPROACHES
Our experimental approach relies on BiFC (Bimolecular fluorescence Complementation), which allows analysing protein-protein interactions in live conditions. In particular, we are using BiFC to decipher Hox interaction networks in different cell contexts. This approach is coupled to the identification of target cis-regulatory sequences in the genome. In the future we hope acquiring a global picture of Hox interactomes at the level of individual target genes in vivo.
Experimentally, our team is using highly diverse tools, from specific lentiviruses from immortalization of human hematopoietic stem cells, to particular transposons for recombineering in Drosophila. Finally, besides classical biochemical and molecular biology techniques, we are extensively using microscopy confocal imaging.
HOW TO CONTACT US
We welcome students for internships, don’t hesitate to contact the responsible (samir.merabet@ens-lyon.fr) if you are interested!