What is Chromatin?

Chromatin is darkly staining (from Greek 'Khroma' for "color") nuclear material. Chromatin is more specifically DNA "packaged" with histones and other proteins. Inactive heterochromatic foci stain darkly by EM and DAPI, whereas euchromatin is relatively weakly stained.

I am interested in the influence of chromatin and gene expression on stem and tumor cell biology. My lab is particularly focused on the roles of specific pluripotency-associated factors including MYC and DPPA4 as well as the histone variant H3.3 in chromatin and epigenomic functions, and in turn how these molecular events impact cellular behavior during normal development and tumorigenesis.

- Paul Knoepfler