Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Susan Gasser
 
Prof. Dr. Susan Gasser
Born 1955
Citizenship: Switzerland (OW) and USA
Tel: +41 61 697 7255
Email: susan.gasser@fmi.ch
 
  • Current position
    		•  Director of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research,
    Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Basel
  • 1977 - 1979
    		•  University of Chicago, Illinois, USA, B.A. with Honors in Biophysics
  • 1979 - 1982
    		•  University of Basel, Ph. D. Magna Cum Laude in Biochemistry, Thesis Advisor: Prof. G. Schatz
  • 1983 - 1986
    		•  Maitre assistant, Prof. U.K. Laemmli, Uni. Geneva, Dept of Molecular Biology
  • 1986 - 1990
    		•  Junior Group Leader, Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC)
  • 1991 - 2001
    		•  Senior Group Leader, Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC)
  • 2001 - 2004
    		•  Full Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, University of Geneva, Geneva
  • since Dec. 2004
    		•  Director of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel
  • since Jan. 2005
    		•  Full Professor in Molecular Biology, University of Basel

    Research accomplishments

    Susan Gasser has studied heterochromatin structure and function in budding yeast since establishing her laboratory at ISREC in 1986. She has contributed to understanding the function of long-range chromosomal organization, both with respect to the biochemical structure of the Silencer-bound nucleosomal fiber, and its positioning within the interphase nucleus. Initially focusing on metaphase chromosomes and the roles of topoisomerase II and AT-rich sequences, she turned to yeast silent chromatin as a model system for epigenetic inheritance. Recently this is extended to developmentally controlled transcription during cell differentiation in C. elegans. Her laboratory exploited high resolution live imaging techniques to quantify subnuclear chromatin mobility and anchoring. She studies the roles of chromatin remodeler complexes in nuclear function and exploits Chromatin IP-chip techniques for these and histone modifications. Currently Director of the FMI, she will coordinate the Cell plasticity node and contribute to interpretation of the data.
     
    Recent publications relevant to the Cell Plasticity RTD include:
     
    Taddei, A.,Hediger, F., Neumann, F.R., and Gasser, S.M. (2004) "The Function of Nuclear Architecture: a genetic approach." Ann. Rev. Genetics, 38, 305 - 345

    Cubizolles, F., Martino, F., Perrod, S. and Gasser, S.M. (2006) "A homotrimer-heterotrimer switch in Sir2 structure differentiates rDNA and telomeric silencing", Molecular Cell, 21, 825 - 836.

    Taddei, A., Van Houwe, G., Hediger, F., Kalck, V., Cubizolles, F., Schober, H. and Gasser, S.M (2006). "Nuclear pore association confers optimal expression levels for an inducible yeast gene" Nature, 441, 774 - 778

    Taddei, A., Van Houwe, G., Nagai, S., Erb, I., van Nimwegen, E. and Gasser, S.M. (2009) "The functional importance of telomere clustering: Global changes in gene expression result from SIR factor dispersion." Genome Research, 19, 611 - 624.

    Martino, F., Kueng, S., Robinson,, P., Tsai-Pflugfelder, M., van Leeuwen,, F., Ziegler, M., Cubizolles,, F., Cockell,, M.M., Rhodes,, D. and Gasser, S.M. (2009) "Reconstitution of yeast silent chromatin: multiple contact sites and O-AADPR binding load SIR complexes onto nucleosomes in vitro" Molecular Cell, 33, 323 - 334.

    Gartenberg, M.R., Neumann, F.R., Laroche, T., B?aszczyk, M. and Gasser, S.M (2004) "Sir-mediated Repression Can Occur Independently of Chromosomal and Subnuclear Contexts" Cell, 119, 955 - 967
     
    Further Information
     
  • http://www.fmi.ch/gasser.s/
  • Full publication list
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