Alexander Meissner, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Harvard University

Alex joined the Harvard University Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology in February 2008. He is a member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Associate Member of the Broad Institute. Alex did his Ph.D. in Rudolf Jaenisch’s laboratory at the Whitehead Institute with a focus on developmental biology, nuclear transfer and stem cell technology using mouse as a model system. A second major focus was on developmental and disease related aspects of DNA methylation. Both directions are now continued in his laboratory at Harvard.

Our laboratory uses genomic tools to study developmental and stem cell biology with a particular focus on epigenetics. The term epigenetic refers to stable modifications of the chromatin and DNA that do not alter the primary nucleotide sequence. The global epigenetic makeup of a cell is a powerful indicator of its developmental state and potential. We apply next generation sequencing technologies to study the epigenome in early development, stem cells and diseases. To gain insights into the interaction and regulation of epigenetic modifications (histone modifications and DNA methylation) we use loss of function and gain of function systems.

One of the goals in the laboratory is to determine the cause, extent and consequence of DNA methylation changes during aging. The causal understanding is particularly relevant for age-related hematopoietic diseases that are commonly treated with DNA demethylating agents. Our work should eventually lead to a better understanding of age-depended epigenetic alterations and result in more targeted treatment strategies.

Dr. Norbert Perrimon

Dr. Norbert Perrimon is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and an Associate of the Broad Institute. Of French nationality, he was educated at the University of Paris VI, where he majored in biochemistry. Following his thesis in 1983 with Madeleine Gans as adviser on Drosophila genetics, he moved to Case Western Reserve University as a postdoctoral research fellow with Anthony Mahowald and became a Lucille P. Markey scholar in biomedical sciences while in Cleveland. In 1986, he assumed his present position at Harvard Medical School. In 2003, he funded the Drosophila RNAi Screening Center at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Perrimon received the George W. Beadle Medal from the Genetics Society of America in 2004. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008) and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009).

Over the years, Perrimon and his colleagues have made a number of contributions to our understanding of the structure of signal transduction pathways. In addition, his laboratory has developed a number of techniques that have proven useful to identify gene functions. Recently, most of his efforts have focused on applying the RNA interference methodology to high-throughput screening in Drosophila cells and in vivo with the ultimate goal to study genetic redundancy in biological networks. His group is also currently actively engaged in identifying genes that are important for muscular development and stem cell proliferation. In particular, his group is interested in characterization how FOXO transcriptional activity is regulated by its cofactors in muscles, and how this in turn influences muscle aging.