Aleksandra Pekowska PhD, DSc

Aleksandra Pekowska graduated from the University of Lodz in 2006. For her Ph.D., she joined Dr. Pierre Ferrier’s lab (CIML, Marseilles), where we discovered chromatin signatures of active enhancers and tissue-specific genes. In 2011, she joined the group of Dr Wolfgang Huber (EMBL, Heidelberg). She found that loss of pluripotency coincides with a gain of chromatin loops. In 2016, she joined the team of Dr Rafael Casellas (NIAMS/NIH, Bethesda). She described a unique chromatin structure linked to the control of gene expression. In 2019, she opened the Dioscuri Center of Chromatin Biology and Epigenomics at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS. Combine ‘omics’ tools, CRISPR-Cas9, and stem cell models to understand the genetic bases of astrocyte functions and the implication of genome topology in transcriptional regulation.