Alexey Soshnev, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Aberrant cell fate decisions due to transcriptional misregulation are central to malignant transformation and developmental disorders. Histone proteins are the major constituents of chromatin – complex of nucleic acids and proteins interpreted by cellular machinery, and mutations in histone-encoding genes are increasingly recognized as drivers of disease. Mutations in linker histone genes were recently identified as drivers of peripheral lymphoid malignancy (Yusufova, … Soshnev, Cesarman, Melnick, Nature 2021), and we aim to understand the mechanistic basis of chromatin decompaction, redistribution of core histone modifications, and reactivation of stem cell–specific transcriptional programs upon H1 loss in germinal center B-cells during malignant transformation.