Life & Medical Sciences
1996 PhD Dept. Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Rome, Italy. 1996-2000 Postdoctoral work at the University of Marburg, Germany. 2000-2002 Senior Investigator at the European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. 2003 Group Leader at the Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG), Barcelona, Spain. Research Professor, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA). 2013 Elected EMBO Member.
Epigenetic changes, such as histone modifications and DNA methylation, are common alterations in cancer cells. Our laboratory is addressing the molecular basis of epigenetic alterations during the early phase of the tumorigenesis process. The expression of onco-proteins in hematopoietic precursor cells provides a unique model system to follow the molecular step from a normal to a transformed cell on the level of gene transcription, nuclear structure and chromatin. More recently, Di Croce’s lab is interested in understanding how variations in the assembly of the Polycomb complexes occur and influence mES cell differentiation and animal development.
– Sebé-Pedrós A, Ballaré C, Parra-Acero H, Chiva C, Tena JJ, Sabidó E, Gómez-Skarmeta JL, Di Croce L & Ruiz-Trillo I 2016, ‘The Dynamic Regulatory Genome of Capsaspora and the Origin of Animal Multicellularity’, Cell, 165, 5, 1224-37.
– Kloet SL, Makowski MM, Baymaz HI, van Voorthuijsen L, Karemaker ID, Santanach A, Jansen PW, Di Croce L & Vermeulen M 2016, ‘The dynamic interactome and genomic targets of Polycomb complexes during stem-cell differentiation’, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 23, 7, 682-90.
– Pasini D & Di Croce L 2016, ‘Emerging roles for Polycomb proteins in cancer’, Curr. Opin. Genetics Dev., 36, 50-58.
– Rinaldi L, Datta D, Morey L, Solanas G, Serrat J, Vincent G, Rodolose R, Gomez D, Von Kriegsheim A, Pilkington R, Gut I, Di Croce L* & Aznar Benitah S* 2016, ‘Novel roles of Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b at enhancers, gene bodies, and promoters regulate human epidermal stem cell function’, Cell Stem Cell, 19, 491–501. * = co-corresponding author
– Mas G & Di Croce L 2016, ‘The role of Polycomb in stem cell genome architecture’, Curr. Opin. Cell Biology, 43, 87-95.
– Vizán P, Beringer M & Di Croce L 2016, ‘Polycomb-dependent control of cell fate in adult tissue’, EMBO J., 35, 2268-69.
– Beringer M, Pisano P, Di Carlo V, Blanco E, Chammas P, Vizán P, Gutiérrez A, Aranda S, Payer B, Wierer M & Di Croce L 2016, ‘EPOP Functionally Links Elongin and Polycomb in Pluripotent Stem Cells’, Molecular Cell, 64, 645-58.
Organizer of several international conferences, including for 2016: Keystone Symposium on Chromatin & Epigenetics (Colorado), Chromatin and the Environment (Spetses), Coding and non-coding functions of the genome (Barcelona)
Since 2015: co-organizer of the “The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology” (BIST) Master school
Since 2014, co-organizer of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratories Summer course on “Chromatin, Epigenetics and Transcription”
Since 2012 Chair of the Graduate Programme at CRG
ERC Panel Member for 2016-2019
EMBO Member (since 2013)