Institut Jacques Monod lectures – Alexander Meissner
Invited by the Institut Jacques Monod and the Epigenetics and Cell Fate Centre, Alexander Meissner (Director, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics) will present an Institut Jacques Monod lecture on the theme:
Epigenetic regulation in development and disease
Abstract:
In vertebrates, somatic cells stably maintain globally high DNA methylation levels and protect CpG island promoters, features that are extensively altered within mammalian extraembryonic tissues and the majority of human cancers. I will present recent insights from various models to explore the non-canonical regulation of DNA methylation
Publications
Ming-Kang Lee, Sebastian D. Mackowiak, Daniel Felismino, Jeron Venhuizen, Maria Walther, Alexander Meissner. Temporal degradation of PRC2 uncovers specific developmental dependencies. bioRxiv 2026.04.18.719361
Taguchi A, Magalhães AP, Bolondi A, Lee MK, Kretzmer H, Wittler L, Hnisz D, Meissner A. Single-cell activation screen identifies hepatic maturation regulators with zonal resolution. Dev Cell. 2026 Mar 11;61(3):553-570.e9.
Hetzel S, Hodis E, Torlai Triglia E, Kovacsovics A, Steinmann K, Gnirke A, Cui M, McQuaid D, Weigert R, Pohl G, Muzumdar MD, Leyvraz S, Keilholz U, Yaspo ML, Regev A, Kretzmer H, Smith ZD, Meissner A. Direct genetic transformation bypasses tumor-associated DNA methylation alterations. Genome Biol. 2025 Jul 17;26(1):212.
Guckelberger P, Haut L, Tornisiello R, Kretzmer H, Meissner A. HELLS is required for maintaining proper DNA modification at human satellite repeats. Genome Biol. 2025 Jul 17;26(1):211.
Batki J, Hetzel S, Schifferl D, Bolondi A, Walther M, Wittler L, Grosswendt S, Herrmann BG, Meissner A. Extraembryonic gut endoderm cells undergo programmed cell death during development. Nat Cell Biol. 2024 Jun;26(6):868-877.
Sampath Kumar A, Tian L, Bolondi A, Hernández AA, Stickels R, Kretzmer H, Murray E, Wittler L, Walther M, Barakat G, Haut L, Elkabetz Y, Macosko EZ, Guignard L, Chen F, Meissner A. Spatiotemporal transcriptomic maps of whole mouse embryos at the onset of organogenesis. Nat Genet. 2023 Jul;55(7):1176-1185.
Weigert R, Hetzel S, Bailly N, Haggerty C, Ilik IA, Yung PYK, Navarro C, Bolondi A, Kumar AS, Anania C, Brändl B, Meierhofer D, Lupiáñez DG, Müller FJ, Aktas T, Elsässer SJ, Kretzmer H, Smith ZD, Meissner A. Dynamic antagonism between key repressive pathways maintains the placental epigenome. Nat Cell Biol. 2023 Apr;25(4):579-591.
Hetzel S, Mattei AL, Kretzmer H, Qu C, Chen X, Fan Y, Wu G, Roberts KG, Luger S, Litzow M, Rowe J, Paietta E, Stock W, Mardis ER, Wilson RK, Downing JR, Mullighan CG, Meissner A. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia displays a distinct highly methylated genome. Nat Cancer. 2022 Jun;3(6):768-782. doi: 10.1038/s43018-022-00370-5.