Epigenetics of Aging

The group of Holger Bierhoff is associated to the FLI as a cooperation group between the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU) and the FLI – located at the FSU.

The group's work aims to comprehensively identify and characterize ncRNA:DNA triplexes and their role in shaping the chromatin landscape. Chromatin is a complex of macromolecules that wraps DNA into a more compact shape, thus regulating gene expression and preventing DNA damage. Bierhoff's lab investigates how triplexes can compete with binding of proteins or with formation of alternative nucleic acid structures at the target sites, but also how (and which) chromatin-associated factors are recruited by triplexes. Together, the group hopes that their work will provide a profound understanding of ncRNA-mediated triplex-formation, which, according to the vast number of genomic sites with triplex-forming potential, is an important and abundant mechanism of epigenetic regulation.