Prof. Luciano Di Croce Center for Genomic Regulation, Spain

Luciano Di Croce obtained his PhD at the Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Rome. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Marburg. Afterwards he became Senior Investigator at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan. In 2003 he joined the CRG as... read morea Group Leader. Research in his lab focuses on understanding the basic mechanisms of gene regulation and the importance of epigenetic marks in chromatin dynamics, with particular emphasis on gene silencing in cancer. Indeed, epigenetic changes, such as histone modi!cations and DNA methylation, are common alterations in cancer cells. His laboratory is among the very few addressing the molecular basis of epigenetic alterations during the early phase of the tumorigenesis process. The expression of onco-proteins in hematopoietic precursor cells provides a unique model system to follow the molecular step from a normal to a transformed cell on the level of gene transcription, nuclear structure and chromatin. In addition they try to understand the role of several protein complexes that are involved in chromatin dynamics and metabolism, which when altered could participate in the establishment and maintenance of the aberrant silencing of tumor suppressor genes during transformation.