Philipp Rathert receives follow-up research grant by the Wilhelm Sander-Foundation.
Philipp Rathert was successful in securing follow-up funding from the Wilhelm Sander-Foundation. The grant will support a project aiming to explore the regulatory network of the lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), which has emerged as promising target for cancer therapy. The transcriptional output of LSD1 is regulated by a highly complex network of associated proteins and the limited mechanistic knowledge of most of these LSD1 coregulators complicate the understanding of LSD1 function in cancer development and maintenance.
Philipp Rathert, group leader at the IBC, is interested in the functional characterization of large chromatin complexes and chromatin regulatory networks. Different layers of cross-talk between several components of this highly complex regulatory system are emerging and misregulation of the epigenome is a feature of many different diseases, especially cancer. A central question became how proteins that act on chromatin or DNA interact with one another to switch genes on or off at the right time point to establish and maintain a healthy cellular state. Advances in our ability to characterize the dynamics and wiring of chromatin regulators, as well as the induced transcriptional output under different conditions, will substantially enhance our understanding of the dynamics of gene regulation. Therefore, Philipp Rathert combines state-of-the-art functional genetic tools (RNAi or CRISPR/Cas9) with cell biology and biochemical assays.
Since its foundation over 40 years ago, the Wilhelm Sander Foundation has funded over 2,260 research projects and distributed a funding volume of around 245 million (as of December 31, 2019).