→ Emerging line: Genome Architecture in neural systems

Lines of investigation

Chromatin three-dimensional organization within the nucleus of eukaryotic cells plays a crucial role in transcriptional regulation, allowing physical interaction between distal regulatory elements and protein-coding genes. We know that, during development, cell precursors differentiate into highly specialized cells in a process accompanied by a complex spatial reorganization of chromatin. In neuronal cells, this configuration must be maintained during their long post-mitotic life, but also presents a great level of dynamism, allowing neurons to accommodate transcriptional processes necessary to generate responses to external stimuli and give rise to the generation of memory traces that will last over time. Although in recent decades we have made significant progress in understanding some of the mechanisms involved in this spatial organization, we still know relatively little about the importance of these mechanisms in many physiological and pathological processes taking place in the nervous system.

Our aim is to better understand the key role played by the different elements involved in the spatial organization of chromatin within the nervous system, focusing on processes as relevant as the cell identity, the memory, the behavior or neurodegenerative diseases.

To this end, our group uses a wide variety of genetic tools designed to study and modulate molecular mechanisms in cellular systems, but also in murine models to study their implications in memory and behavior. Our methodology is highly multidisciplinary, combining molecular biology approaches (generation of genetic constructs and production of neurotropic vectors), next generation sequencing techniques (RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, CUT&TAG, ChIP-seq), techniques for the study of chromatin three-dimensional architecture (4C-seq, GAM) and behavioral neuroscience.

Representative Publications

See all
Tenure-Track Scientist
Rafael Alcalá Vida Junior Leader La Caixa
Predoctoral Researcher
Juan Zaragoza Lillo

Research groups of Unit

Emerging Research Lines

Research groups of Scientific Program