Research Interests

Understanding the quiescence program and its benefits for stem cell function.Most cells in adult tissues have permanently ceased proliferation. However, stem cells in regenerating tissues must attain and maintain a temporary state of quiescence so that a reserve pool is available for future unpredictable bouts of repair. The programs that control the cell cycle and differentiation are coordinated to ensure the correct balance of stem cells and differentiated cells in regenerating tissue, but the mechanisms that direct cells into reversible vs. irreversible arrest are poorly understood.

Selected Publications

Sachidanandan, C., Ramkumar, S. and Dhawan, J. (2002) Tristetraprolin and LPS-inducible CXC chemokine are transiently induced in presumptive satellite cells in response to skeletal muscle injury. J. Cell. Sci. 115 (13) 2701-2712.

Sebastian, S., Sreenivas, P., Sambasivan, R., Prashanth, K., Cheedipudi,S., Pavlath G.K. and Dhawan, J. (2009). MLL5, a trithorax homolog, indirectly regulates H3K4 methylation, represses Cyclin A2, expression, and promotes myogenic differentiation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 106: 4719-4724.

Cheedipudi, S*, Puri DR*, Saleh, A, Gala, HP, Rumman, M, Pillai, MS, Sreenivas, P. Arora, R, Sellathurai, J, Schroeder, HD, Mishra, RK and Dhawan, J. (2015). A fine balance: Epigenetic control of cellular quiescence by the tumor suppressor PRDM2/RIZ at a bivalent domain in the Cyclin A gene. Nucleic Acids Res. Jun 3. pii: gkv567. [Epub ahead of print]. *equal contribution

Aloysius A, DasGupta R and Dhawan J (2018) Lef1 switches partners from ?-catenin to Smad3 for transcriptional activation of Tcf/Lef1 target genes in quiescent muscle stem cells Science Signaling 11, 540, eaan3000. DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.aan3000

Venugopal N, Ghosh A, Gala HP, Aloysius A, Vyas N and J Dhawan (2020) The primary cilium dampens proliferative signaling and represses a G2/M transcriptional network in quiescent myoblasts BMC Cell Mol Biol doi.org/10.1186/s12860-020-00266-1.

Hardik P. Gala*, Debarya Saha*, Nisha Venugopal, Ajoy Aloysius, Gunjan Purohit, Jyotsna Dhawan (2022) A transcriptionally repressed quiescence program is associated with paused RNAPII and is poised for cell cycle reentry J Cell Sci 135 (15): jcs259789. https://doi.org/10.1242/jcs.259789 *Equal contribution