Publications related to ZFN-Site searches genomes for zinc finger nuclease target sites and off-target sites

Development of multiplexed single-molecule imaging techniques to study chromatin invasion dynamics of chromatin effector proteins

DNA-binding proteins physically interact with the DNA and directly affect genomic functions. The eukaryotic genome is compacted into chromatin, limiting the DNA access to nuclear factors. In this Ph.D. thesis, I explored the dynamic mechanisms, that allow ...

EPFL2023

Evaluation of genetic demultiplexing of single-cell sequencing data from model species

Clement Helsens

Single-cell sequencing (sc-seq) provides a species agnostic tool to study cellular processes. However, these technologies are expensive and require sufficient cell quantities and biological replicates to avoid artifactual results. An option to address thes ...

LIFE SCIENCE ALLIANCE LLC2023

Identifying genetic and dietary modulators of metabolic disorders using systems genetics

Xiaoxu Li

Long-term consumption of lipid-rich foods can contribute to common metabolic diseases and systemic low-grade inflammation. However, dietary responses and the development of non-communicable diseases are shaped by genetic factors and gene-by-environment int ...

EPFL2023

The role of Zn in C-S-H atomic structure, nucleation and growth

Anna Morales Melgares

The most promising solution towards cementitious materials with a lower carbon footprint is the partial substitution of the clinker by supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as fly ash, blast furnace slag, limestone and calcined clays. The produc ...

EPFL2023

Functional characterization of Drosophila melanogaster immune effectors

Alexia Laurie Carboni

Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as the "fruit fly", is a genetically tractable model organism widely used to study biological processes, notably the innate immune system. The advent of novel genome editing technologies, such as the CRISPR-Cas9 syst ...

EPFL2023

An optimized high throughput platform, from genetic transformation to fermentation, to screen for secreted laccases in Aspergillus niger

Laure Marie Colette Leynaud-Kieffer Curran

Many challenges are faced in the conversion of biomass into advanced biofuels, one of which is finding the correct organism for the job. The filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger has been chosen as a biocatalyst for cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin degr ...

EPFL2021

Allosteric control of type I-A CRISPR-Cas3 complexes and establishment as effective nucleic acid detection and human genome editing tools

Henning Paul-Julius Stahlberg, Dongchun Ni

Type I CRISPR-Cas systems typically rely on a two-step process to degrade DNA. First, an RNA-guided complex named Cascade identifies the complementary DNA target. The helicase-nuclease fusion enzyme Cas3 is then recruited in trans for processive DNA degrad ...

CELL PRESS2022

Natural competence of the pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii: an elusive phenomenon

Nina Vesel

Natural competence for transformation is an important driver of horizontal DNA exchange between different organisms. This can result in accumulation of dangerous genetic features, such as antibiotic resistance genes, in a single organism. One example of an ...

EPFL2022

Towards automating de novo protein design for novel functionalities: controlling protein folds and protein-protein interactions

Zander Harteveld

The sheer size of the protein sequence space is massive: a protein of 100 residues can have 20^100 possible sequence combinations; and knowing that this exceeds the number of atoms in the universe, the chance of randomly discovering a stable new sequence w ...

EPFL2022

Engineering synthetic adhesins for biophysical investigation and rewiring of host-microbe interactions

Xavier Jean-Yves Pierrat

Host attachment is often a critical step in the onset of pathogenesis. To attach to host cells, bacteria have evolved a range of adhesins that bind to specific receptors. Some of these adhesins have been thoroughly characterized using biochemical technique ...

EPFL2022

A ribonucleoprotein transfection strategy for CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing and single cell cloning in rainbow trout cells

Kristin Schirmer

Background The advent of the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 technology marked the beginning of a new era in the field of molecular biology, allowing the efficient and precise creation of targeted mutations in the ge ...

2021

Optogenetic control of Neisseria meningitidis Cas9 genome editing using an engineered, light-switchable anti-CRISPR protein

Bruno Emanuel Ferreira De Sousa Correia, Zander Harteveld, Julius Valten Upmeier Zu Belzen

Optogenetic control of CRISPR-Cas9 systems has significantly improved our ability to perform genome perturbations in living cells with high precision in time and space. As new Cas orthologues with advantageous properties are rapidly being discovered and en ...

2021

Variants in USP48 encoding ubiquitin hydrolase are associated with autosomal dominant non-syndromic hereditary hearing loss

Nicolas Jean Philippe Guex

Non-Syndromic Hereditary Hearing Loss (NSHHL) is a genetically heterogeneous sensory disorder with about 120 genes already associated. Through exome sequencing (ES) and data aggregation, we identified a family with six affected individuals and one unrelate ...

Oxford University Press2021

Constraint-based metabolic control analysis for rational strain engineering

Ljubisa Miskovic, Vassily Hatzimanikatis, Meriç Ataman, Tuure Eelis Hameri, Sofia Tsouka

The advancements in genome editing techniques over the past years have rekindled interest in rational metabolic engineering strategies. While Metabolic Control Analysis (MCA) is a well-established method for quantifying the effects of metabolic engineering ...

2021

New and improved methods for integrated models of metabolism and gene expression

Pierre Guy Rémy Salvy

The beginning of the 21st century was marked by the advent of disruptive technologies, which ushered an era of groundbreaking advances in fundamental sciences, carried by the great pace at which computational capabilities spread and evolved. But the new ce ...

EPFL2021

A generalized theory of separable effects in competing event settings

Mats Julius Stensrud

In competing event settings, a counterfactual contrast of cause-specific cumulative incidences quantifies the total causal effect of a treatment on the event of interest. However, effects of treatment on the competing event may indirectly contribute to thi ...

2021

Modelling the Intracellular Environment under Uncertainty, from Post-translational Modification to Metabolic Networks

Robin Alexander Denhardt-Eriksson

Modelling and analysis of biological systems is crucial in order to quantitatively explain and predict their behaviour. The importance of modelling in systems biology becomes even more evident when tackling complex, large systems. Approaches that rely on ...

EPFL2021

Computational design of anti-CRISPR proteins with improved inhibition potency

Wei Sun, Sandrine Madeleine Suzanne Georgeon, Bruno Emanuel Ferreira De Sousa Correia, Zander Harteveld, Andreas Scheck, Stéphane Rosset, Julius Valten Upmeier Zu Belzen, Yujia Wang

Anti-CRISPR (Acr) proteins are powerful tools to control CRISPR-Cas technologies. However, the available Acr repertoire is limited to naturally occurring variants. Here, we applied structure-based design on AcrIIC1, a broad-spectrum CRISPR-Cas9 inhibitor, ...

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP2020

Mapping and Analysis of the Complexity of Lipid Metabolism for Applications in Health and Sustainability

Vassily Hatzimanikatis, Sofia Tsouka

Metabolism is a network of biotransformations that sustain life in cells. Over the past decades, metabolism has been studied in multiple contexts, ranging from medicine to industrial manufacturing. In particular, lipid metabolism has been linked to various ...

EPFL2020

KRAB-zinc finger protein gene expansion in response to active retrotransposons in the murine lineage

Didier Trono, Alberto De Iaco

The Krüppel-associated box zinc finger protein (KRAB-ZFP) family diversified in mammals. The majority of human KRAB-ZFPs bind transposable elements (TEs), however, since most TEs are inactive in humans it is unclear whether KRAB-ZFPs emerged to suppress TE ...

2020