Ena Haseljic

Program: Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Current advisor: Elizabeth Ann Pollina, PhD

Undergraduate university: University of Rochester, 2022

Enrollment year: 2022

Research summary
I am investigating activity-dependent DNA repair and chromatin in neurons.

Neuronal activity plays a crucial role in shaping the brain’s intricate circuits during development and maintaining functional connectivity with age. Neuronal activity leads to the de novo transcription of thousands of genes whose products mediate long-term adaptation of neurons to environmental cues. While activity is critical for circuit development and plasticity, it also induces both DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) and repair at the promoters of genes that undergo rapid transcriptional induction. Recent work in mice discovered a neuronal-specific chromatin modifier, NPAS4:NuA4, that plays a dual role in activating cell-type-specific transcriptional programs and in stimulating the repair of activity-induced DBSs. My proposed research uses the NPAS4:NuA4 complex as a molecular handle to investigate the mechanisms and functional significance of DSB repair in activated neurons.

Graduate publications