NucPro: Epigenetics of nuclear programs - from genome-wide landscapes to individual factor mechanisms

This Proposal outlines research plans for global epigenetic and transcription factor studies at an already established Functional Genomics (FUGE) Consortium for studies of nuclear programs at the University of Oslo (UiO). The consortium is a joint effort from four independent research groups to exploit cutting-edge microarray technology to address challenging issues in the field of plasticity of gene expression and transcription control. The applicants are the following four PIs: Prof Odd Stokke Gabrielse n, Coordinator - Dept Molecular Biosciences (IMBV), UiO Prof Philippe Collas - Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, UiO Prof Ola Myklebost, - Department of Tumor Biology, Norwegian Radium Hospital (DNR) and IMBV UiO; Head of the FUGE Norwegian Microarray Consortium (NMC) and Microarray Core Facility at DNR. Professor Fahri Saatcioglu - IMBV, UiO The consortium has been funded, to some extent, by a previous FUGE program, to perform global expression studies. NucPro represents an extension of the transcrip tional networking studies of our phase I FUGE project, to the high-profile field of genome-wide and locus-specific areas of epigenetics of gene regulation and cellular memory. NucPro will benefit from microarray resources developed by the Norwegian Micr oarray Consortium (NMC), a FUGE microarray platform headed by Myklebost, and from on-going research by the four PIs. Each is also supported by strong international collaborative networks. The overall scientific competence of the consortium is interdiscipl inary and of excellent standard. NucPro concentrates expertise in complementary fields of transcription regulation, such as manipulation of gene expression, nuclear (re)programming and stem cell biology (Collas), Myb-related factors including chromatin re modeling complexes (Gabrielsen), oncology, stem cell biology, and microarray technology (Myklebost), and gene regulation and nuclear receptors (Saatcioglu).