Faculty Seminar Johannes Graeff: Epigenetic memory aids
Abstract
Memory research faces a conundrum. Memories can last, but neuronal spiking does not. How, then, can memories be encoded despite transient neuronal activity? One of the most stable cellular codes resides on the epigenome, suggesting that learned behaviors may deploy chromatin-templated mechanisms for their long-term storage.
In this talk, I outline my lab’s efforts over the past five years to put this hypothesis to test. First, we found that already before memory encoding, epigenetic plasticity plays a fundamental role in selecting neurons for memory trace formation. Second, following encoding, we discovered that cell type-specific and locus-resolved epigenetic modifications are necessary and sufficient to bidirectionally regulate memory storage. Third, this malleability of epigenetic modifications also forms the basis for evaluating their translational potential to treat cognitive disorders, which we pursue in both preclinical and clinical studies. And finally, we show that reverting the epigenetic landscape by means of cellular reprogramming can rejuvenate cognitive functions, further supporting their role as molecular memory aids.
Bio
Johannes Gräff is Associate Professor at the Brain Mind Institute of the School of Life Sciences at EPFL. Of Swiss origin, he obtained his MSc in evolutionary biology at the University of Lausanne and his PhD in neuroscience at ETH Zürich, before conducting his postdoctoral studies at the Picower Institute of Learning and Memory at MIT. Since setting up his own research group at EPFL in 2013, Johannes has become a NARSAD Independent Investigator, an MQ fellow, a Vallee Scholar, a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative researcher and a founding member of the FENS-KAVLI Network of Excellence. He has received both an ERC Starting and Consolidator Grant, as well as the Young Investigator Award of the Swiss Society for Biological Psychiatry in 2014, the Boehringer Ingelheim FENS Research Award in 2020, and the Robert Bing Prize in 2022. In 2022, he won the Polysphère Award for best teaching in Life Sciences at EPFL. His lab studies the molecular and cellular underpinnings of memory formation, storage and change, with a particular emphasis on epigenetic processes.
This seminar is part of the evaluation of Prof. Johannes Gräff for the promotion to Full Professor.
Memory research faces a conundrum. Memories can last, but neuronal spiking does not. How, then, can memories be encoded despite transient neuronal activity? One of the most stable cellular codes resides on the epigenome, suggesting that learned behaviors may deploy chromatin-templated mechanisms for their long-term storage.
In this talk, I outline my lab’s efforts over the past five years to put this hypothesis to test. First, we found that already before memory encoding, epigenetic plasticity plays a fundamental role in selecting neurons for memory trace formation. Second, following encoding, we discovered that cell type-specific and locus-resolved epigenetic modifications are necessary and sufficient to bidirectionally regulate memory storage. Third, this malleability of epigenetic modifications also forms the basis for evaluating their translational potential to treat cognitive disorders, which we pursue in both preclinical and clinical studies. And finally, we show that reverting the epigenetic landscape by means of cellular reprogramming can rejuvenate cognitive functions, further supporting their role as molecular memory aids.
Bio
Johannes Gräff is Associate Professor at the Brain Mind Institute of the School of Life Sciences at EPFL. Of Swiss origin, he obtained his MSc in evolutionary biology at the University of Lausanne and his PhD in neuroscience at ETH Zürich, before conducting his postdoctoral studies at the Picower Institute of Learning and Memory at MIT. Since setting up his own research group at EPFL in 2013, Johannes has become a NARSAD Independent Investigator, an MQ fellow, a Vallee Scholar, a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative researcher and a founding member of the FENS-KAVLI Network of Excellence. He has received both an ERC Starting and Consolidator Grant, as well as the Young Investigator Award of the Swiss Society for Biological Psychiatry in 2014, the Boehringer Ingelheim FENS Research Award in 2020, and the Robert Bing Prize in 2022. In 2022, he won the Polysphère Award for best teaching in Life Sciences at EPFL. His lab studies the molecular and cellular underpinnings of memory formation, storage and change, with a particular emphasis on epigenetic processes.
This seminar is part of the evaluation of Prof. Johannes Gräff for the promotion to Full Professor.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Deanship SV
Contact
- Manuelle Mary