Stephin Vervoort-Projects

Stephin Vervoort-Projects

Researcher: 

Projects

Super Content: 
Dr Stephin Vervoort photographed at WEHI

Dr Stephin Vervoort has received a prestigious fellowship from the Snow Medical Research Foundation to investigate new treatment options for cancers such as leukaemia. 

Photograph of Dr Stephin Vervoort outside WEHI

Dr Stephin Vervoort has been awarded a CSL Centenary Fellowship to fund his research to find new treatments for leukaemia and other types of cancers.

Discovery and targeting of novel regulators of transcription

Tight control of gene expression is critical for normal development and homeostasis. Consequently, many layers of transcriptional regulation have evolved to control RNA Polymerase II (RNAPII) mediated RNA synthesis. When transcriptional control is lost, the ensuing dysregulation of gene-expression networks invariably results in human disease, including cancer. This notion has spurred the development of novel therapies that target transcriptional complexes.  

In recent work we have combined genome-wide CRISPR-screening approaches with state-of-the-art genomics and molecular biological approaches to discover, characterise and target new transcriptional regulatory complexes (Vervoort et al. Cell 2021).  

This project will combine unbiased screening approaches, with innovative bio-sensors and CRISPR-Cas9 genome-engineering to uncover novel coding and non-coding regulators of transcription and carefully delineate their molecular role through structural, molecular and genomics technologies.