“Towards understanding the molecular biology of an autism-related syndrome” 

Marc Bühler is a tenured Group Leader and Professor in Molecular Biology at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) in Basel, Switzerland. His research focuses on the convergence of two seemingly disparate fields of study: chromatin biology and RNA turnover. His group’s research has provided fundamental mechanistic insights into how non-coding RNAs are used to control gene expression at the level of chromatin. In his presentation Marc will talk about a new line of research in his laboratory that has uncovered a novel chromatin regulatory complex, which they refer to as ChAHP. Mutations in this complex have been reported among the most frequent in patients with autism and intellectual disability. Marc will present their latest work that helps explain ChAHP-mediated regulation of gene expression but also strongly suggests that ChAHP functions to prevent rewiring of chromatin folding by specifically recognizing novel emerging CTCF sites.