Prof. Dr. Tomas Ekström
Laboratory for Molecular Development and Tumor Biology Dept. of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute Sweden

Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Stockholm University, Sweden, 1987. Postdoctoral research at the Dept.of Pharmacology, University of California, San Diego, 1987 – 1990.

Professor of Molecular Cellbiology from 2002, at the Dept of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm Sweden. Member of the Central Management Board of the Center for Molecular Medicine, CMM, at Karolinska Institutet/Hospital.

I have a long term interest in human growth factors and epigenetic regulation of gene expression and genomic imprinting in development and cancer. In recent years this has also entailed epigenetic tools for use in stem cell mediated cancer gene therapy as well as epigenetics in chronic alcoholism.
I believe the next big leap in biological understanding will require more detailed knowledge within the epigenetic field, since it is here that the machines for interpreting the genome are found.

Epigenetic Principales
The epigenetic machinery provides the first step in interpreting the genome. The dynamic  modifications of DNA and the chromatin environment is a prerequisite for development and cell differentiation, and the inheritance of the epigenetic state from one cell division to the next is a prerequisite for maintaining the phenotype. One of the basic epigenetic modifications is methylation of cytosine in CpG dinucleotide sequences. This modification is tightly coordinated with others that modify the histone tails in the nucleosomes by methylation, acetylation and phosphorylation. All modifications must occur in a strictly coordinated way leading to an epigenetic, or histone “code”. Stem cell maintenance and differentiation is thus reflected by defined epigenetic “patterns” which resolution is only limited by the current available technologies. The detailed understanding of pathways that lead up to this epigenetic code is also obviously of utmost importance for the understanding of differentiation and homeostasis.