Dr. Muhammad Tariq, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering (SBASSE) attended the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Conference, “Transcription and Chromatin” held on August 25-28 in Heidelberg, Germany. This Conference is the top venue in the field of Transcription, which is organised by EMBL every second year.
Dr. Tariq presented his work which describes a strategy to discover new genes involved in maintenance of tissue specific gene activation essential for maintenance of cell fates during development. Following this strategy, the Tariq Lab at LUMS has discovered more than a hundred different genes which regulate anti-silencing mechanism of known group of genes called trithorax group (trxG) and maintain cell fates.
A comprehensive analysis of two genes identified by the Tariq Lab has revealed an interplay between different chromatin modifying complexes to maintain epigenetic cell memory. All the work was performed by Ms. Zain Umer, Jawad Akhtar, Muhammad Haider Farooq Khan (graduate students) and Ms. Saima Anwar (Postdoc fellow) at the Tariq Lab. This work is funded by HEC NRPU 5908 and LUMS FIF 2014 awarded to the Lab. Dr. Tariq was also awarded the EMBL Advanced Training Centre Corporate Partnership Programme Fellowship to present his research work at EMBL.
