Olga B. Simonova
Doctor of Biological Sciences
Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences
Genetic and epigenetic control of development, signal pathways of cell polarization, transcription factors, oxidative stress, chaperones, gene evolution, Drosophila
She has discovered a unique system of overlapping lawc/Trf2 genes in Drosophila, which play an important role in individual development; has showed the key role and importance of the TRF2 factor in the regulation of embryogenesis, oogenesis, and chromosome segregation; has discovered a new function of TRF2 in the organization of pericentromeric heterochromatin. She has detailed the hypothesis about the evolutionary role of the basic transcription factor TRF2 in creating a system of its target genes that are responsible for the body axes formation, the segment fates, and the origin of the third embryo layer, the mesoderm. She has designed convenient model systems for studying the molecular mechanisms that control coordinated development.
