Mira T. Kassouf

The paper shows that active enhancers recruit cohesin to form cell-specific chromatin domains, using the alpha globin cluster as a model.

This study identifies CTCF binding sequences that effectively block enhancer-promoter activity, showing that their function is not correlated with CTCF/cohesin levels, conservation, or sequence similarity to consensus motifs.

The paper investigates the role of cohesin-mediated loop extrusion in enhancer-promoter proximity and gene expression during mouse erythropoiesis, finding that it is important but not exclusive for gene activation.

The paper shows that super-enhancers function directionally and orientation-dependently, unlike regular enhancers, by analyzing the β-globin super-enhancer.

The paper investigates the functional interdependence of super-enhancer elements in erythroid -globin gene regulation, revealing the necessity of facilitator elements for optimal activity.

This paper establishes a scalable protocol to isolate primitive-like erythroid cells from in vitro differentiated mESCs, showing they recapitulate normal erythropoiesis and mutation effects seen in primary cells.

The paper shows that actively transcribed genes can function as chromatin boundary elements, similar to CTCF-bound sites, by stalling chromatin loop extrusion.