Gene regulation though mitosis

Pablo is interested in understanding how transcriptional regulation, chromatin states and signaling pathways functionally interact to bring about and maintain cell identity in vivo or in the context of self-renewing embryonic stem (ES) cells. Pablo’s laboratory has discovered that repressive histone methylation is strictly dependent on transcription factors, such as Nanog, Oct4 or Zfp57, and signaling pathways centered on ERK and LIF. His work pioneered the field of mitotic bookmarking factors in ES cells, and extended their activity to replication, hence producing a new concept, that of “resilient transcription factors”.

Recent publications

• Molecular and epistatic interactions between pioneer transcription factors shape nucleosome dynamics and cell differentiation.
  Coux RX, Dubois A, Chervova A, Gonzalez I, Vandormael-Pournin S, Cohen-Tannoudji M, Navarro P. Nat Commun. 2025 Dec 10;17(1):698. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-67308-0. PMID: 41372234 Free PMC article.
• Mitotic chromosomes harbor cell type- and species-specific structural features within a universal loop array conformation.
  Oomen ME, Fox AN, Gonzalez I, Molliex A, Papadopoulou T, Navarro P, Dekker J. Genome Res. 2025 Aug 1;35(8):1733-1744. doi: 10.1101/gr.280648.125. PMID: 40480831 Free PMC article.
• Nr5a2 is dispensable for zygotic genome activation but essential for morula development.
  Festuccia N, Vandormael-Pournin S, Chervova A, Geiselmann A, Langa-Vives F, Coux RX, Gonzalez I, Collet GG, Cohen-Tannoudji M, Navarro P. Science. 2024 Oct 4;386(6717):eadg7325. doi: 10.1126/science.adg7325. Epub 2024 Oct 4. PMID: 39361745