Dr. Ritwick Sawarkar (CIBSS-AI), Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics Freiburg
Metazoan cells have to survive constant changes in the environment. Cells have evolved sophisticated molecular circuitry to sense, signal and respond to multitude of stresses. The inability of cells to mount a response tailor to specific stresses is at the basis of several diseases including neurodegeneration. In our lab, we study epigenetic control of cellular stress responses. Using mammalian cells and mouse models, we ask two broad questions: (i) How do cells sense specific stressful environments? and (ii) How cellular signalling communicates with chromatin to alter stress-specific transcriptional response? A molecular understanding of pathways controlling stress response will pave new avenue for therapeutics, that is being actively explored in the lab.