RNA-mediated regulation of PRC2 – lessons from a complex story.

Hosted by: Professor Eduardo Eyras

Abstract

Maintenance of cell identity relies on the repression of lineage-specific genes, which is largely regulated by the histone modifier polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2). Dysregulation of PRC2 contributes to human diseases, including cancer. PRC2 maintains gene repression by depositing repressive histone marks (H3K27me3) and its enzymatic activity and recruitment to chromatin are regulated by DNA, RNA and accessory subunits. In this seminar, Dr Zhang will demonstrate how RNA regulates PRC2 mechanistically, through a combination of approaches including biochemistry, structural biology, cell biology and genomics.

Biography

Dr Qi Zhang has been leading a lab as an NHMRC Investigator and EMBL Australia Group Leader at SAiGENCI, the University of Adelaide since December 2023. She focuses on the fundamental mechanisms of epigenetic regulation and their implications in cancer. Previously, as a Senior Research Fellow and ARC DECRA Fellow at the Chen Davidovich lab, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, she studied how PRC2 is regulated by protein and RNA cofactors. Her earlier postdoctoral work at the Structure Genomics Consortium, University of Toronto, involved studying the structure and function of ubiquitination complexes in stress response and gene regulation.