(epi)genetic and (epi)transcriptomic gene regulation in the maintenance of embryonic stem cell state

This study addresses some outstanding issues in the epigenetics (DNA and histone modifications) and epitranscriptomics (RNA modifications) fields for gene regulation and embryonic stem cell (ESC) state maintenance that have not been resolved yet. These comprise: i) Investigate combinatorial gene regulatory functions of all histone-demethylases (HDMs, a class of epigenetic regulators) in murine ESCs. ii) Identify the novel m6A RNA methylation-reader/binding proteins and dissect their roles in maintaining the murine ESC state. iii) Examine underlying mechanisms that link epigenetic and epitranscriptomic pathways for gene regulation to maintain the ESC state.