Dr. Montserrat Anguera - Dept. of Biomedical Sciences, University of Pennsylvania

"Understanding the genetic contribution for female-biased lupus: XCI maintenance in the immune system"

Female mammals use X-chromosome Inactivation (XCI) to equalize the expression of X-linked genes between males and females. The process of XCI begins in the early embryo, where one X is chosen for transcriptional silencing. The memory of silencing is maintained through each round of cell division by various epigenetic modifications, and persists into adulthood.  My lab discovered that immune cells have a dynamic mechanism to maintain XCI.  I will present our recent investigations of XCI maintenance in immune cells, and features that are misrelated in SLE patients and mouse models of lupus-like disease.

Email biology.chair@uah.edu for more meeting details.