LORENA KOLAR ZNIKA

I'm a research engineer working in collaboration with the team of Dr. O. Delattre (U830). I am interested in the mechanisms of action of EWS-FLI fusion protein, an abberant transcription factor and a hallmark of Ewing sarcoma, formed by a chromosomal translocation between chromosomes 11 and 22. In Ewing sarcoma, EWS-FLI nucleates in the form of molecular hubs at the GGAA microsatellites where it acts as a neoenhancer. Nucleated EWS-FLI are able to recruit, via its intrinsically disordered regions, proteins such as RNA Pol II, as well as chromatin modifiers thus changing the chromatin structure around the binding site and triggering transcriptional activation of a variety of different genes. Using molecular biology techniques, optogenetics and imaging approaches I am trying to gain insight on the dynamics of binding of EWS-FLI and the physical nature of transcriptional hubs to better understand the development of Ewing sarcoma.