EMBL Seminars

Abstract
1. Overseas Training Support Program in Korea

Korean Association of Medical Colleges (KAMC) established a Training Center for Innovative Medical Scientists to support the development of future leaders in the biomedical field through its Overseas Training Support Program. The key objectives include providing information and guidance on training institutions, offering logistical support before, during, and after training, and facilitating collaboration with top-tier global research institutions. This presentation outlines the project’s vision, strategic goals, support mechanisms, and achievements, including partnerships with renowned institutions and the status of overseas trainees.

2. Introduction to two single cell atlas

My lab is conducting research aimed at elucidating the mechanisms of human diseases by applying new genomic analysis technologies. To this end, we have established lung, stomach, and intestinal organoids from multiple individuals and are constructing an Organoid Single Cell Atlas (OSCA) through single-cell genomic analysis of these organoids. Additionally, since 2022, we have been leading the Single Cell Atlas of Immune Disease (SCAID) project in collaboration with 23 other laboratories in Korea, collecting single-cell data from samples of patients with 16 immune diseases. In this presentation, we will introduce the progress of these two atlas projects and present our recent research findings.

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Abstract
Paternal health at conception is important for offspring health. The susceptibility windows within the male reproductive tract and the molecular mechanisms are not completely understood. Using mouse genetics, (epi)genomics and in-depth phenotyping, we show that the germ-cell epigenome and components of the seminal fluid are critical for paternal intergenerational effects.

We use two paternal paradigms of pre-conceptional challenge in mice: acute HFD feeding and circadian disruption.

Paternal circadian disruption leads to hyperphagia, hyperglycemia, hypercorticosteronemia and partial circadian disruption in unexposed male offspring. The phenotypes are gender-specific and the females are partially protected. Mechanistically, mouse seminal fluid contains corticosterone, whose appearance dynamic follows the organismal circadian rhythm and is blunted upon circadian disruption. Offspring phenotypes are sensitive to the levels of corticosterone in the seminal fluid and consequential to impaired placentation, reduced placental efficiency and fetal growth restriction.

Paternal exposure to an acute high-fat diet challenge, instead, leads to a 30% penetrant glucose intolerance exclusively in male offspring. Mechanistically, this is linked to the epigenetic inheritance of diet-induced and sperm-borne mitochondrial RNAs. 

These studies strengthen the importance of paternal health at conception for pregnancy and offspring health and identify germ-cell and non-germ cell factors as potential mechanistic mediators.

Abstract
The oncofetal RNA binding protein Insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3) is a key player in a wide array of malignancies. Here we demonstrate that IGF2BP3 is required for MLL-AF4 driven leukemogenesis and define the underlying post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms through which IGF2BP3 drives this process in vivo.