Adipose tissue epigenome

Adipose tissue is a highly heterogeneous and dynamic tissue that regulates systemic metabolism and is thus highly involved in the development of obesity and the associated metabolic syndrome. While the epigenome of adipose tissue remains poorly characterized, we expect epigenetic mechanisms to be of key relevance in the governing of adipose tissue biology largely due to the key characteristic of the epigenome as dynamic integrator and memory of environmental and metabolic changes. Specifically, we are interested in mature adipocytes, their precursors and their response to external stimuli such as caloric excess, cold, special diets, fasting or age. We are characterizing and dissecting the epigenome of adipocytes under different conditions to unravel whether these long-lived cells retain memories of extracellular cues and undergo dynamic identity changes. Using state of the art multi-omics methods such as Cut&Tag, RNA-seq, and ATAC-seq on single-cell and bulk level, we aim to identify key epigenetic switches that govern adipocyte identity, functionality and dynamic responses which we aim to modulate using pharmacological approaches (e.g. epigenetic drugs) or targeted epigenetic editing.