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Gene regulation Group

Deregulated transcription is causal for a large fraction of human diseases such as cancer, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative disorders. Our interest is to elucidate how regulation of specific transcripts relevant to pathogenesis is brought about mechanistically.

We focus on suppression of inducible gene expression, more precisely on

• the mechanism of transcriptional repression by novel synthetic inverse agonists of the nuclear receptor PPARβ/δ (peroxisome proliferator activated receptor β/δ), which is mediated by the NCOR and SMRT corepressor complexes
• analysing how homeostatic mechanisms are exploited in immune evasion by tumor cells through regulation of immunosuppressive and immunostimulatory factors such as IL-10 and IL-12 in macrophages

To this end, we use a panel of established and novel techniques and also aim to develop novel methods.