Penn Medicine news recently covered the recent publication of a paper from the lab of IRM Director Dr. Ken Zaret. In the paper, first author Dario Nicetto and others found evidence of the process by which DNA packing affects development in early embryos. The group found that in mouse embryos–only eight days after fertilization–compacted regions along the genome increase at protein-coding genes. Days later in the cell differentiation phase, these domains open to allow certain genes to be read and made into their corresponding proteins. Dr. Zaret noted that “this is a fundamental change in our understanding of how genes are controlled in the early embryo, even if we can’t yet see all the potential clinical impacts.”
Want to know more? Check out the Penn Medicine news release or see the paper in Science.
