Michael Poirier, Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics was recently awarded a Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

This award, Mechanisms of Chromatin Regulation of Transcription, is a five-year grant for $3,506,957 that began on Sept. 17^th. It combines all of Poirier’s NIGMS funding allowing Poirier to focus on his research program that aims to understand how the physical organization of the human genome regulates gene expression.

More specifically, the regulation of gene expression and cell differentiation by pioneer transcription factors and epigenetic factors is a major focus in cancer epigenetics because of the master regulator function of pioneer factors and the reversible nature of epigenetic alterations. Recent advances in understanding epigenetic factors have led to the emergence of epigenetic therapy and the recent FDA approval of multiple epigenetic drugs. This project uses a combination of in vitro biochemical, biophysical and single molecule methods, combined with in vivo genetic and cell biology approaches to reveal the molecular mechanisms behind the function of pioneer factors and these chromatin epigenetic regulators. These studies will provide molecular information for understanding drug resistance, tumorigenesis and will help designing new drugs and therapies.