Cookie Settings

We use cookies to optimize our website. These include cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site, as well as those that are only used for anonymous statistic. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Further information can be found in our data privacy protection .

Essential

These cookies are necessary to run the core functionalities of this website and cannot be disabled.

Name Webedition CMS
Purpose This cookie is required by the CMS (Content Management System) Webedition for the system to function correctly. Typically, this cookie is deleted when the browser is closed.
Name econda
Purpose Session cookie emos_jcsid for the web analysis software econda. This runs in the “anonymized measurement” mode. There is no personal reference. As soon as the user leaves the site, tracking is ended and all data in the browser are automatically deleted.
Statistics

These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and analyzing information anonymously. Depending on the tool, one or more cookies are set by the provider.

Name econda
Purpose Statistics
External media

Content from external media platforms is blocked by default. If cookies from external media are accepted, access to this content no longer requires manual consent.

Name YouTube
Purpose Show YouTube content
Name Twitter
Purpose activate Twitter Feeds

Division of Chromatin Networks

Prof. Dr. Karsten Rippe

Computer simulations of the dynamic structure of a nucleosome. The nucleosome is the basic building block of chromatin and consists of an histone protein core with DNA wrapped around it. In a human cell about 30 million nucleosomes organize the genome of 6 billion DNA base pairs. The image shows computer simulations of the dynamics nucleosome conformation over a 2 nanosecond time period with histone proteins in white and the DNA color-coded according to simulation time from red to white to blue. For further details on investigating nucleosome and chromatin features in computer simulations see Ettig et al. 2011, Biophys. J. and Kepper et al. 2008, Biophys. J.
© dkfz.de

The Division of Chromatin Networks at the DKFZ and the BioQuant is an interdisciplinary research team that combines molecular/cell biology and physics. It investigates the relation of the dynamic organization of the genome in the eukaryotic cell nucleus with the readout, processing, maintenance and transfer of the information encoded in the DNA sequence. A special focus is put on the conformation and dynamic properties of chromatin - the complex of the DNA genome with histones and other chromosomal proteins. Both the DNA and the protein component of chromatin are subject to post-translational modifications that include DNA/histone methylation, as well as acetylation and phosphorylation of histones. These epigenetic signals determine the cell's gene expression pattern and can be propagated through cell division. They are tightly related to chromatin organization, which in turn is a key determinant of access to DNA sequence information for interacting protein factors. The goal of the group is to provide an integrated view on how the dynamic balance between different chromatin states determines genome functions.

Understanding how chromatin states are established and maintained becomes increasingly important for medical diagnosis and therapy of cancer, developmental diseases and other pathologies. We will further advance the single cell analysis of epigenetic networks by fluorescence spectroscopy/microscopy-based techniques in living cells and integrate it with genome wide studies of nucleosome positioning, protein binding and histone modifications in cell populations based on DNA sequencing. The experimental results will serve as the basis for various modeling-based projects with respect to developing quantitative descriptions for the dynamic chromatin organization in the context of the dynamic nuclear architecture into subcompartments. The results from these studies are integrated to dissect the underlying networks. Our work has a number of implications for translational medical research with respect to elucidating the complex effects of epigenetic drugs like histone deacetylase or DNA methylase inhibitors in treatment of cancer. Accordingly, we plan to apply a number of approaches currently used with immortalized human and mouse cell lines to studies of primary cancer cells.

External Bioquant-Website

Contact

Prof. Dr. Karsten Rippe
Chromatin Networks (B066)
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280
69120 Heidelberg
Tel: +49 6221 54 51376

Selected Publications

  • Trojanowski J, Frank L, Rademacher A, Mücke N, Grigaitis P, Rippe K. Transcription activation is enhanced by multivalent interactions independent of phase separation. Mol Cell 82, 1878-1893 (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2022.04.017
  • Frank L, Rademacher A, Mücke N, Tirier SM, Koeleman E, Knotz C, Schumacher S, Stainczyk SA, Westermann F, Fröhling S, Chudasama P, Rippe K. ALT-FISH quantifies alternative lengthening of telomeres activity by imaging of single-stranded repeats. Nucleic Acids Res 50, e61 (2022). DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkac113
  • Tirier SM, Mallm J-P, Steiger S, Poos AM, Awwad M, Giesen N, Casiraghi N, Susak H, Bauer K, Baumann A, John L, Seckinger A, Hose D, Müller-Tidow C, Goldschmidt H, Stegle O, Hundemer M, Weinhold N, Raab MS, Rippe K. Subclone specific microenvironmental impact and drug response in refractory multiple myeloma revealed by single cell transcriptomics. Nat Commun 12, 6960 (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26951-z
  • Erdel F, Rademacher A, Vlijm R, Tünnermann J, Schweigert E, Frank L, Yserantant K, Hummert J, Bauer C, Schumacher S, Weinmann R, Alwash AA, Normand C, Herten D-P, Engelhardt J, Rippe K. Mouse heterochromatin adopts digital compaction states without showing hallmarks of HP1-driven liquid-liquid phase separation. Mol Cell 78, 236-249.e7 (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2020.02.005
to top
powered by webEdition CMS