Joanna K. Wysocka

Wysocka has become a leader in the field of chromatin and histone modifications. Early on, she made important discoveries, including identification of a PHD finger as a histone methyl-lysine reader, with David Allis. Wysocka demonstrated a role of novel protein subunit in Polycomb recruitment to developmental genes. Wysocka showed that developmental enhancers are in a poised state, epigenetically bookmarked by a unique chromatin signature, a discovery important both from a mechanistic point of view. Wysocka combined a hESC-based model of neural crest formation with animal embryological models to dissect regulatory circuitry that orchestrates distinct spatiotemporal events accompanying human craniofacial morphogenesis.