Dr. Skoultchi's laboratory investigates mechanisms controlling mammalian development. One project concerns the role of H1 linker histones in embryonic development. H1 controls packaging of DNA and nucleosomes into the chromatin fiber. The lab has developed several H1 gene knock-out models in mice and mouse ES cells. The Skoultchi lab has demonstrated that H1 regulates methylation of imprinted genes which is crucial for proper embryonic development. Another project in this lab concerns the control of human ES cell proliferation and totipotency. Skoultchi is investigating which cell cycle regulators control human ES cell proliferation and whether these molecules also control their totipotency.
Giambra V, Volpi S, Emelyanov AV, Pflugh D, Bothwell AL, Norio P, Fan Y, Ju Z, Skoultchi AI, Hardy RR, Frezza D, Birshtein BK. Pax5 and linker histone H1 coordinate DNA methylation and histone modifications in the 3' regulatory region of the immunoglobulin heavy chain locus. Mol Cell Biol. 2008 Jul 21. [Epub ahead of print]
Papetti M, Skoultchi AI. Reprogramming leukemia cells to terminal differentiation and growth arrest by RNA interference of PU.1. Mol Cancer Res. 2007 Oct;5(10):1053-62.