Repression of genes as part of the gene regulatory unit

Supervisor: Dr. Carsten Marr

Enrolled from 2018 - 2022

After graduating from the Oslo International School, Oslo, Norway, I studied mathematics at the Technical University of Munich (2013 - 2018). In December 2018, I started my PhD at the Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, in the group of Dr. Carsten Marr, Quantitative Single Cell Dynamics. During my PhD, I will study gene regulation: All cells in our body contain the same genetic information encoded within the DNA. However, we are composed of many different types of tissue, each composed of many different cell types. Epigenetic regulation of gene expression enables the cells in our body to extract the cell-specific information from the DNA to perform their functions. Identifying the regulatory mechanisms of gene repression (and transcriptional memory) will aid in understanding diseases associated with impaired gene expression e.g. autoimmune diseases and cancer, disease tolerance and therapy. My studies will focus on the repression - the switching off - of genes as part of the gene regulatory unit in a basic system, the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast). To do so, I will apply both experimental and theoretical approaches.

Awards

  • Add-On Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Life Science - Joachim Herz Stiftung
  • Industry Award for Academic Achievements - City of Gerstetten
  • Global Challenges for Women in Math Science - Technische Universität München

Current Position

Project Officer - Infectious Disease Modelling 

with the European Commission - Ispra, Lombardy, Italy

Publications

  • Schuh, L., Kukhtevich, I., Bheda, P., Schulz, M., Bordukova, M., Schneider, R., and Marr, C. (2022). Altered expression​ response upon repeated gene repression in single yeast cells. PLOS Computational Biology 18(10): e1010640. ​
  • Boe, R.H., Ayyappan, V., Schuh, L., Raj, A. (2021). Allelic correlation is a marker of trade-offs between barriers to​ transmission of expression variability and signal responsiveness in genetic networks. Cell Systems, 13(12), 1016-1032.​​
  • Schuh, L., Saint-Antoine, M., Sanford, E.M., Emert, B.L., Singh, A., Marr, C., Raj, A., and Goyal, Y. (2020). Gene​ networks with transcriptional bursting recapitulate rare transient coordinated high expression states in cancer. Cell​ Systems, 10(4), 363-378. ​
  • Schuh, L., Loos, C., Pokrovsky, D., Imhof, A., Rupp, R.A.W., and Marr, C. (2020). H4K20 methylation is differently​ regulated by dilution and demethylation in proliferating and cell-cycle-arrested Xenopus embryos. Cell Systems, 11(6),​ 653-662. ​
  • Alabert, C., Loos, C., Voelker-Albert, M., Graziano, S., Forné, I., Reveron-Gomez, N., Schuh, L., Hasenauer, J., Marr, C.,​ Imhof, A., and Groth, A. (2020). Domain model explains propagation dynamics and stability of histone H3K27 and​ H3K36 methylation landscapes. Cell Reports, 30(4), 1223-1234.