Chromatin · gene regulation · epigenetics · developmental biology
I study how an embryo switches on its first genes. In the hours after fertilisation, control passes from the mother’s mRNAs and proteins to the embryo’s own genome: pioneer factors open chromatin, histone marks inherited from the egg or written from metabolites decide which genes respond first, and mRNA–protein condensates keep maternal messages silent and in place until they are needed.
My work connects three active questions in the field: how metabolic state reaches chromatin at genome activation, how the material state of RNA–protein granules controls when their mRNAs are read, and how the same metabolic signals shape the behaviour of the whole animal. I bring fruit-fly genetics, single-molecule imaging and quantitative image analysis.
Master’s research, Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg (2026–27): metabolism and histone modifications at the maternal-to-zygotic transition, and metabolism and behaviour.
One cell, four chapters. Chromatin state: a pioneer factor opens an enhancer; acetyl, lactyl and methyl marks appear, fed by acetyl-CoA, lactyl-CoA and SAM from mitochondria and gut microbes; a cohesin loop brings enhancer and promoter together. Transcriptional bursting: Pol II fires in bursts and mRNAs are exported. mRNA fate: RBPs bind; some mRNAs are deadenylated and decayed, others are held in an RNP granule that grows by fusion and later released for translation. Protein, metabolism and feedback: enzymes drive metabolic flux, metabolites and regulators return to chromatin, and metabolic state links to behaviour. Inset: maternal mRNA, zygotic mRNA and protein over developmental time (schematic).
Sun et al. 2015 · Hug et al. 2017 · Davidson et al. 2019 · Bothma et al. 2014 · Tadros et al. 2007 · Bushati et al. 2008 · Bose et al. 2022 · Wellen et al. 2009 · Zhang et al. 2019 · Krautkramer et al. 2016 · Leitão-Gonçalves et al. 2017
01
Which factors and complexes make an enhancer competent before the genome is activated, and which act only once transcription starts?
My work: Stage 5 and the MZT · Current project: metabolism and histone marks
02
How do the composition and material state of an RNP condensate set when the mRNAs inside it are translated?
My work: oskar RNA condensates and sequential smFISH · Prion protein phase separation
I am also building this site into a platform where biology research feels easy and explorative: visual explanations of methods and ideas, and free, open tools for biologists that run in the browser, with no sign-up. Images and files you analyse stay on your own computer.