Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

Eugenio Sanchez-Moran’s research aims to unravel the biological significance that the different levels of DNA compaction structures and components have on chromosome condensation and DNA processes in the nucleus. His group believes that this research will contribute to the understanding of different important themes like cell division, cancer, stem cells, chromosome alterations, fertility and plant and animal breeding.

The key proteins involved in chromosome condensation are conserved throughout eukaryotic evolution, indicating that they are likely to have fundamental roles that are species-independent. Dr Sanchez-Moran’s group is using Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant model organism for basic research in genetics and molecular biology and a good experimental system without any of the ethical issues related to working with animals. It is also considering starting pilot experiments with other model systems to understand the evolution of chromatin structures. The group is using a multidisciplinary approach combining new high-resolution cytogenetic techniques, mutant characterisation, proteomic analysis and systems biology to resolve the complicated interactions of individual chromatin components that result in accurate chromosome condensation.