Abstract

Effie Apostolou studied Biology in the Aristotle University of Thesaloniki in Greece (1998-2003) and did her PhD studies in Dimitris Thanos lab in Athens on mechanisms that regulate stochastic gene expression upon virus induction (Apostolou and Thanos, Cell 2008). In 2009, she joined Konrad Hochedlinger lab in MGH and Harvard Stem Cell institute in Boston to unravel epigenetic mechanisms that drive somatic cell reprograming to iPSCs (Apostolou, Ferarri et al, Cell Stem Cell 2013; Stadtfeld, Apostolou et al, Nature 2010; Stadtfeld, Apostolou et al, Nat. Gen. 2012).

She is currently an Associate Professor of Molecular Biology at Weill Cornell Medicine, which I joined in 2014. The main focus of her group is to dissect the critical interplay between TFs, 3D chromatin organization and transcription during either (i) maintenance of cell fate (self-renewal) or (ii) during transition to a new fate. The Apostolou group recently constructed the first integrative, genome-wide map of the dynamic architectural and transcriptional changes that occur upon mitotic exit to ensure faithful propagation of stem cell identity and functionally interrogated the role of mitotic bookmarking in this process (Molecular Cell, 2021; Stem Cell Reports 2020; Cell Reports 2017). Her group has also shown that transcription factors, such as KLF4 , play important roles in the organization and transcriptional regulation of 3D enhancer hubs (Di Giammartino et al, Nature Cell Biology 2019).

Effie Apostolou has received several awards, including Jane Coffins Child Foundation and EMBO postdoctoral fellowships and the NIH Director’s New Innovator award and the Emerging Leader award from the Mark Foundation.

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