Ann Dean, Ph.D. : NIDDK

Ann Dean, Ph.D.


LCDB
GENE REGULATION & DEVELOPMENT SECTION
NIDDK, National Institutes of Health
Building 50, Room 3154
50 South Dr.
Bethesda, MD 20892-8028
Tel: 301-496-6068
Fax: 301-496-5239
Email: anndean@helix.nih.gov

Education / Previous Training and Experience:
B.A., Bucknell University, 1966
Ph.D., George Washington University, 1981


Research Statement:

The laboratory studies how enhancers activate transcription during development and differentiation, with particular interest in the role played by chromatin structure in this process. The model system employed is the family of human globin genes that are expressed in a tissue specific and developmentally regulated fashion under the influence of the beta-globin locus control region enhancer (LCR). Studies are being carried out to map the precise changes in nucleosome organization that accompany gene activation, and to understand the role of transcription factors, and transcription and replication per se. Other studies using mutagenesis, and in vitro and in vivo ligation approaches, are addressing the extent to which the interaction of a promoter and an enhancer involves close contact. Another area of interest is in establishing which transcription factors and mediators are actually bound in vivo to a transcribing gene promoter or enhancer by using cross linking and immunoprecipitation. The goal of these studies is to understand the complex interplay between nuclear genes and their modulators. Understanding the role of chromatin structure in gene regulation is important to gene therapy efforts.



Selected Publications:

1. Song, SH, Hou, C, Dean, A A positive role for NLI/Ldb1 in long range beta-globin locus control region function Molecular Cell(28): 810-822, 2007.

2. Kim A, Zhao H, Ifrim I, Dean A Beta-globin intergenic transcription and histone acetylation dependent on an enhancer. Mol Cell Biol(27): 2980-6, 2007. [Full Text/Abstract]

3. Kim A, Kiefer CM, Dean A Distinctive signatures of histone methylation in transcribed coding and noncoding human beta-globin sequences. Mol Cell Biol(27): 1271-9, 2007. [Full Text/Abstract]

4. Kim A, Song SH, Brand M, Dean A Nucleosome and transcription activator antagonism at human {beta}-globin locus control region DNase I hypersensitive sites. Nucleic Acids Res, 2007. [Full Text/Abstract]

5. Zhao H, Kim A, Song SH, Dean A Enhancer blocking by chicken beta-globin 5''-HS4: role of enhancer strength and insulator nucleosome depletion. J Biol Chem(281): 30573-80, 2006. [Full Text/Abstract]

6. Dean A On a chromosome far, far away: LCRs and gene expression. Trends Genet (22): 38-45, 2006. [Full Text/Abstract]

7. Zhao H, Dean A Organizing the genome: enhancers and insulators. Biochem Cell Biol (83): 516-24, 2005. [Full Text/Abstract]

8. Zhao H, Dean A An insulator blocks spreading of histone acetylation and interferes with RNA polymerase II transfer between an enhancer and gene. Nucleic Acids Res (32): 4903-19, 2004. [Full Text/Abstract]

9. Dean A Chromatin remodelling and the interaction between enhancers and promoters in the beta-globin locus. Brief Funct Genomic Proteomic (2): 344-54, 2004. [Full Text/Abstract]

10. Kim A, Dean A Developmental stage differences in chromatin subdomains of the beta-globin locus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A (101): 7028-33, 2004. [Full Text/Abstract]

11. Kim A Dean A A human globin enhancer causes both discrete and widespread alterations in chromatin structure. Mol Cell Biol (23): 8099-109, 2003. [Full Text/Abstract]

12. Gui CY Dean A A major role for the TATA box in recruitment of chromatin modifying complexes to a globin gene promoter. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A (100): 7009-14, 2003. [Full Text/Abstract]

13. Jackson DA McDowell JC Dean A Beta-globin locus control region HS2 and HS3 interact structurally and functionally. Nucleic Acids Res (31): 1180-90, 2003. [Full Text/Abstract]



Page last updated: December 15, 2008

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