Gerd Blobel MD, PhD
Professor, Dept of Pediatrics
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Endowed Chair in Hematology

Genetics and Gene Regulation Program

Address

316H, Abramson Research Center
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
3615 Civic Center Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-4318

Office tel.: 215 590-3988
Lab tel.: 215 590-4461
Fax: 215 590-4834
E-mail: blobel@email.chop.edu

Education

Rockefeller University, PhD (Molecular Oncology),1991

Ruprecht-Karls University, MD (The intermediate filament cytoskeleton and its uses as diagnostic tool for the classification of epithelial cancers),1986

Research Interests

• Hematopoiesis, gene expression, transcription factors, chromatin

Description of Research

Our laboratory focuses on the transcriptional control of hematopoiesis and its disorders. Specifically, we study how hematopoietic transcription factors govern the development of erythroid cells and megakaryocytes. Our work is leading us deeply into the analysis of chromatin structure, its modifications and organization. For example, our recent studies addressed the role of higher order chromatin organization such as directed chromatin loop formation during the developmental activation and repression of gene expression. Moreover, we study postranslational modifications of histones and transcription factors. For our studies we combine molecular and biochemical analyses with studies in normal and gene targeted mice. Several projects are available to extend our understanding of histone modifications, chromatin loops, and the transcriptional control of lineage choice.

Selected Publications

Vakoc C.R., Letting D.L., Gheldof N., Sawado T., Bender M.A., Groudine M., Weiss M.J., Dekker J., and Blobel G.A. (2005) Proximity among distant regulatory elements at the b-globin locus requires GATA-1 and FOG-1. Molecular Cell 17:453-462

Hong W., Nakazawa M., Chen Y.-Y., Vakoc C.R., Kori R., Rakowski C., and Blobel G.A. (2005) FOG-1 recruits the NuRD repressor complex tomediate transcriptional repression by GATA-1. EMBO J. 24: 2367-2378.

Vakoc C.R., Mandat S.A., Olenchock B.A., and Blobel G.A. (2005) Methylation of histone H3 lysine 9 and HP1 g are associated withtranscription elongation through mammalian chromatin. Molecular Cell 19:381-391.

Vakoc C.R., Sachdeva M.M., Wang H., and Blobel G.A. (2006) A profile of histone lysine methylation generated by mammalian gene transcription. Mol. Cell. Biol. 26:9185-9195

Gregory G.D., Vakoc C.R., Rozovskaia T., Zheng X., Patel S., Nakamura T., Canaani E., and Blobel G.A. (2007). The Ash1L histone methyltransferase occupies the transcribed region of active mammalian genes.Mol. Cell. Biol. 27:8466-8479

Jing H., Vakoc C.R., Mandat S., Wang H., Zheng X., and Blobel G.A. (2008). GATA factor switches and transitions in looped chromatin organization at a developmentally regulated gene locus. Molecular Cell 29:232-242

Search PubMed for more articles

Lab

Rotation Projects

Rotation projects are available in the areas listed below:

1. Regulation of higer order chromatin organization by GATA-1 during gene activation and repression
2. The mechanism of gene regulation by the NuRD (nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase) repressor complex
3. Role of histone methylation and HP-1 during transcription elongation
4. Lineage choice decisions by GATA-1, FOG-1 and Ets transcription factors during hematopoiesis
5. Molecular mechanisms of GATA-1 acetylation

Lab personnel:

Greg Gregory, postdoctoral fellow
Annarita Miccio, postdoctoral fellow
Tamara Tripic, postdoctoral fellow
Chris Vakoc, postdoctoral fellow
Lei Ying, postdoctoral fellow
Janine Lamonica, graduate student
Stephan Kadauke, graduate student
Wulan Deng, graduate student
Liping Han, visiting scientist
Hongxin Wang, lab manager
Rena Zheng, rotation student