The Systems Biology of Cell Plasticity in Health and Disease is an RTD project funded by the SystemsX.ch initiative. Coordinated by Dr. Susan Gasser, Cell Plasticity brings together 8 research teams, and several affiliated members. The common goal is to decode the regulation of stem cell status and cell differentiation, under both physiological and pathological conditions. Specifically, we will delineate genome-wide epigenetic and transcriptional events that occur during cell differentiation using systematic, quantitative approaches. We will relate this insight to gene regulation programs that have been computationally predicted and experimentally tested. In particular, we will model the interplay of transcription factor activities and chromatin modifications during cell differentiation by genetic perturbations in our experimental systems (hematopoiesis, neurogenesis, and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition). Ultimately, by performing the proposed integrated analysis, we aim to generate predictive models for the epigenetic contribution to the state of pluripotency and to cell differentiation.

see http://www.cellplasticity.org/Projects/ for a more detailed summary of the projects.