Browsing by Author "Oberacker, Phil"

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    EPIC’RISPR: a modular and inducible platform for highly parallel synthetic epigenetics and chromatin imaging in a high-throughput format
    (2021) Oberacker, Phil; Jurkowski, Tomasz P. (Dr.)
    The epigenome describes the sum of epigenetic states in an organism. It consists of biochemical modifications of the DNA and histone proteins, non-coding RNAs and the three-dimensional architecture of the genome. These modifications and structures regulate the genome expression in a cell-type-specific pattern and hence control the development of the whole organism. Research in this field yielded a lot of descriptive information about the correlation between epigenetic marks and gene expression. Unfortunately, we do not know much about the causalities within the epigenetic network. With the discovery of the groundbreaking CRISPR/Cas9 technology, it is now possible to interfere with the epigenetic program. This methodology, which is known as epigenetic editing, allows the recruitment of effector molecules to distinct targets where they introduce or remove specific modifications. By observing the response of the epigenome, we can conclude how the epigenetic network functions. However, this system is somewhat limited regarding the simultaneous modification of multiple loci, which is a necessity for investigating a network. In this thesis, I combined the targeting and recruiting functionality of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in one molecule, the gRNA. Like this, this EPIC’RISPR platform can recruit numerous effector molecules to one or multiple targets simultaneously without interference. I demonstrated this by activating and repressing three target genes with different effector domains at once and by recruiting different fluorophores to several target loci. I further applied this technology to perturb five differently expressed target genes simultaneously with one effector molecule at a time. For this, I performed a large-scale experiment in which I probed the effects of more than 60 epigenetic effector molecules on target gene transcription. I identified several promising candidates which might exhibit synergistic behaviour and hence a stronger and longer-lasting impact on the epigenetic program. Furthermore, I developed ON- and OFF-switches for the EPIC’RISPR system which utilize small molecules to fine-tune the introduced effects arbitrarily. The OFF-switch was further applied for transgene expression control, extending the functionality of this system even further. Additionally, our group developed protocols for the synthesis and functionalisation of paramagnetic beads and their application in the automated high-throughput extraction of nucleic acids. Since its publication, our platform, which we call Bio-On-Magnetic-Beads (BOMB) has since become a hub for collaborations in open-source science, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.