B.S., M.S., Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany Ph.D., Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Goettingen, Germany Postdoctorate, Stanford University, CA

DYNAMICS AND FUNCTION OF CHROMATIN STRUCTURE Research in Hinrich Boeger’s laboratory is concerned mostly with the structure and dynamics of chromatin at gene regulatory elements. The eukaryotic cell packages its nuclear DNA by spooling the DNA in regular intervals about a core of specific proteins, forming a jointed chain of DNA spools (‘nucleosomes’). This chain, or ‘chromatin fiber’, folds up into unknown structures of higher order. How does DNA spooling affect both gene expression and regulation, which both require access to the DNA? This question is pursued by molecular biological and biophysical methods, including electron and fluorescence microscopy and yeast genetics. These experimental approaches are combined with mathematical modeling of promoter chromatin dynamics and function. The aim is the development of a formal framework that allows for a quantitative understanding of eukaryotic gene expression and regulation.

The prenucleosome, a stable conformational isomer of the nucleosome. Fei J, Torigoe SE, Brown CR, Khuong MT, Kassavetis GA, Boeger H, Kadonaga JT. Genes Dev. 2015 Dec 15;29(24):2563-75. doi: 10.1101/gad.272633.115. From Structural Variation of Gene Molecules to Chromatin Dynamics and Transcriptional Bursting. Boeger H, Shelansky R, Patel H, Brown CR. Genes (Basel). 2015 Jun 30;6(3):469-83. doi: 10.3390/genes6030469. Review. Nucleosomal promoter variation generates gene expression noise. Brown CR, Boeger H. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Dec 16;111(50):17893-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1417527111. Epub 2014 Dec 2. Nucleosomes, transcription, and probability. Boeger H. Mol Biol Cell. 2014 Nov 5;25(22):3451-5. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E14-02-0753. Chromatin structure analysis of single gene molecules by psoralen cross-linking and electron microscopy. Brown CR, Eskin JA, Hamperl S, Griesenbeck J, Jurica MS, Boeger H. Methods Mol Biol. 2015;1228:93-121. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-1680-1_9. Purification of specific chromatin domains from single-copy gene loci in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Hamperl S, Brown CR, Perez-Fernandez J, Huber K, Wittner M, Babl V, Stöckl U, Boeger H, Tschochner H, Milkereit P, Griesenbeck J. Methods Mol Biol. 2014;1094:329-41. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-706-8_26. Compositional and structural analysis of selected chromosomal domains from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Hamperl S, Brown CR, Garea AV, Perez-Fernandez J, Bruckmann A, Huber K, Wittner M, Babl V, Stoeckl U, Deutzmann R, Boeger H, Tschochner H, Milkereit P, Griesenbeck J. Nucleic Acids Res. 2014 Jan;42(1):e2. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkt891. Epub 2013 Oct 7. Linking stochastic fluctuations in chromatin structure and gene expression. Brown CR, Mao C, Falkovskaia E, Jurica MS, Boeger H. PLoS Biol. 2013;11(8):e1001621. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001621. Epub 2013 Aug 6.