Eran Meshorer (Hebrew: ערן משורר, born May 12, 1971) is an Israeli scientist, professor of epigenetics and stem cells at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, and the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Meshorer is the Arthur Gutterman Chair for Stem Cell Research.

Eran Meshorer
ערן משורר
BornMay 12, 1971
NationalityIsraeli, American
Alma materHebrew University
Known forResearch in epigenetics, stem cells and paleo-epigenetics
AwardsLilly-Molecular Psychiatry Award; Hestrin Prize
Scientific career
FieldsEpigenetics, Stem cells, paleo-epigenetics
InstitutionsThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Websitehttp://meshorerlab.huji.ac.il/

Biography

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Meshorer was born and raised in Israel. He completed all his degrees at the Hebrew University. Meshorer performed his PhD in molecular neuroscience under the supervision of Hermona Soreq, where he studied long-lasting consequences of stress in the mammalian brain.[1] Together with Soreq, he published his first book (in Hebrew) titled 'Stressed Out'.[2] In 2004, Meshorer traveled to the United States for postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he specialized in epigenetics and embryonic stem cells in the research group of Tom Misteli. Meshorer showed for the first time the epigenetic plasticity of embryonic stem cells.[3]

In 2007 Meshorer returned to Israel, and established his 'Epigenetics, Stem Cells & Neurons' lab at the Department of Genetics, the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2014 he was invited as a visiting professor to the Whitehead Institute, MIT and the Broad Institute, where he spent half a year.

Eran is married to Tali Meshorer, a father of three, and lives in Neve Ilan.

Research

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Meshorer conducts experimental and computational research in the field of epigenetics, molecular biology, pluripotent stem cells, disease models, and epigenetics of ancient DNA. He published over a hundred papers in these fields, and edited several books including The Cell Biology of Stem Cells (2010)[4] with Kathrin Plath (UCLA) and Stem Cell Epigenetics (2019)[5] with Giuseppe Testa (IEO).

In a series of papers, Meshorer discovered the unique epigenetics of embryonic and cancer stem cells,[6][7][8][9][10] and the mechanisms supporting it, and together with Gil Ast from Tel-Aviv University, they showed the connection between chromatin and splicing.[11][12][13][14]

Paleo-Epigenetics

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In 2014, in collaboration with Liran Carmel, they developed a computational technique to reconstruct genome-wide maps of DNA methylation (a key epigenetic mechanism) from ancient DNA sequences. They applied this technique to ancient DNA from Neanderthal and Denisovan, and thus were the first to reconstruct epigenetic patterns of archaic humans, and to identify genes that are differentially methylated between archaic and modern humans.[15] These genes include many that are expressed in the brain, and are associated with neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, autism and schizophrenia. This work was selected among the top ten discoveries of 2014 by Archaeology magazine.[16]

In 2020 Carmel and Meshorer were able to show that the vocal and facial anatomy of modern humans differs from that of Neanderthals and Denisovans,[17] which points at evolutionary processes during the past hundreds of thousands of years that affected the modern human voice box. In another collaboration with the Carmel lab, they generated a first anatomical profile of the Denisovan.[18] This work was selected among the scientific breakthroughs of 2019 by Science magazine,[19] and was selected among the 10 top stories of the year by Science News.[20]

Awards and honors

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  • For his PhD dissertation (2003), Meshorer received the Teva and ISBMB[21] (Israel Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) Award
  • The Lilly-Molecular Psychiatry Award for best paper[22] of 2005
  • The Hestrin Prize for a young researcher from the ISBMB[21]

References

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  1. ^ Meshorer, Eran; Erb, Christina; Gazit, Roi; Pavlovsky, Lev; Kaufer, Daniela; Friedman, Alon; Glick, David; Ben-Arie, Nissim; Soreo, Hermona (18 Jan 2002). "Alternative Splicing and Neuritic mRNA Translocation Under Long-Term Neuronal Hypersensitivity". Science. 295 (5554): 508–512. doi:10.1126/science.1066752. PMID 11799248. S2CID 8773254.
  2. ^ Meshorer, Eran (2004). Stressed Out: On the Molecular Biology of Stress Responses (in Hebrew). Van Leer Institute Press and Hakibbutz Hameuchad.
  3. ^ Meshorer, Eran; Yellajoshula, Dhananjay; George, Eric; Scambler, Peter J.; Brown, David T.; Misteli, Tom (2006-01-01). "Hyperdynamic Plasticity of Chromatin Proteins in Pluripotent Embryonic Stem Cells". Developmental Cell. 10 (1): 105–116. doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2005.10.017. ISSN 1534-5807. PMC 1868458. PMID 16399082.
  4. ^ The Cell Biology of Stem Cells. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Vol. 695. 2010. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-7037-4. ISBN 978-1-4419-7036-7.
  5. ^ "Stem Cell Epigenetics".
  6. ^ Efroni, Sol; Duttagupta, Radharani; Cheng, Jill; Dehghani, Hesam; Hoeppner, Daniel J.; Dash, Chandravanu; Bazett-Jones, David P.; Grice, Stuart Le; McKay, Ronald D. G.; Buetow, Kenneth H.; Gingeras, Thomas R. (2008-05-08). "Global Transcription in Pluripotent Embryonic Stem Cells". Cell Stem Cell. 2 (5): 437–447. doi:10.1016/j.stem.2008.03.021. ISSN 1934-5909. PMC 2435228. PMID 18462694.
  7. ^ Gaspar-Maia, Alexandre; Alajem, Adi; Polesso, Fanny; Sridharan, Rupa; Mason, Mike J.; Heidersbach, Amy; Ramalho-Santos, João; McManus, Michael T.; Plath, Kathrin; Meshorer, Eran; Ramalho-Santos, Miguel (Aug 2009). "Chd1 regulates open chromatin and pluripotency of embryonic stem cells". Nature. 460 (7257): 863–868. doi:10.1038/nature08212. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 3891576. PMID 19587682.
  8. ^ Melcer, Shai; Hezroni, Hadas; Rand, Eyal; Nissim-Rafinia, Malka; Skoultchi, Arthur; Stewart, Colin L.; Bustin, Michael; Meshorer, Eran (2012-06-19). "Histone modifications and lamin A regulate chromatin protein dynamics in early embryonic stem cell differentiation". Nature Communications. 3 (1): 910. doi:10.1038/ncomms1915. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 3564597. PMID 22713752.
  9. ^ Bošković, Ana; Eid, André; Pontabry, Julien; Ishiuchi, Takashi; Spiegelhalter, Coralie; Ram, Edupuganti V. S. Raghu; Meshorer, Eran; Torres-Padilla, Maria-Elena (2014-05-15). "Higher chromatin mobility supports totipotency and precedes pluripotency in vivo". Genes & Development. 28 (10): 1042–1047. doi:10.1101/gad.238881.114. ISSN 0890-9369. PMC 4035533. PMID 24831699.
  10. ^ Torres, Christina Morales; Biran, Alva; Burney, Matthew J.; Patel, Harshil; Henser-Brownhill, Tristan; Shapira Cohen, Ayelet-Hashahar; Li, Yilong; Ben-Hamo, Rotem; Nye, Emma; Spencer-Dene, Bradley; Chakaravarty, Probir; Efroni, Sol; Matthews, Nik; Misteli, Tom; Meshorer, Eran; Scaffidi, Paola (30 Sep 2016). "The linker histone H1.0 generates epigenetic and functional intratumor heterogeneity". Science. 353 (6307): aaf1644. doi:10.1126/science.aaf1644. PMC 5131846. PMID 27708074.
  11. ^ Schwartz, Schraga; Meshorer, Eran; Ast, Gil (Sep 2009). "Chromatin organization marks exon-intron structure". Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. 16 (9): 990–995. doi:10.1038/nsmb.1659. ISSN 1545-9985. PMID 19684600. S2CID 14822939.
  12. ^ Yearim, Ahuvi; Gelfman, Sahar; Shayevitch, Ronna; Melcer, Shai; Glaich, Ohad; Mallm, Jan-Philipp; Nissim-Rafinia, Malka; Cohen, Ayelet-Hashahar S.; Rippe, Karsten; Meshorer, Eran; Ast, Gil (2015-02-24). "HP1 Is Involved in Regulating the Global Impact of DNA Methylation on Alternative Splicing". Cell Reports. 10 (7): 1122–1134. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2015.01.038. ISSN 2211-1247. PMID 25704815. S2CID 16578549.
  13. ^ Kfir, Nir; Lev-Maor, Galit; Glaich, Ohad; Alajem, Adi; Datta, Arnab; Sze, Siu K.; Meshorer, Eran; Ast, Gil (2015-04-28). "SF3B1 Association with Chromatin Determines Splicing Outcomes". Cell Reports. 11 (4): 618–629. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2015.03.048. hdl:10220/25580. ISSN 2211-1247. PMID 25892229. S2CID 33203006.
  14. ^ Leader, Yodfat; Lev Maor, Galit; Sorek, Matan; Shayevitch, Ronna; Hussein, Maram; Hameiri, Ofir; Tammer, Luna; Zonszain, Jonathan; Keydar, Ifat; Hollander, Dror; Meshorer, Eran (2021-07-27). "The upstream 5′ splice site remains associated to the transcription machinery during intron synthesis". Nature Communications. 12 (1): 4545. doi:10.1038/s41467-021-24774-6. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 8316553. PMID 34315864.
  15. ^ Gokhman, David; Lavi, Eitan; Prüfer, Kay; Fraga, Mario F.; Riancho, José A.; Kelso, Janet; Pääbo, Svante; Meshorer, Eran (17 Apr 2014). "Reconstructing the DNA Methylation Maps of the Neandertal and the Denisovan". Science. 344 (6183): 523–527. doi:10.1126/science.1250368. PMID 24786081. S2CID 28665590.
  16. ^ "Top 10 Discoveries of 2014 - Archaeology Magazine". www.archaeology.org. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
  17. ^ Gokhman, David; Nissim-Rafinia, Malka; Agranat-Tamir, Lily; Housman, Genevieve; García-Pérez, Raquel; Lizano, Esther; Cheronet, Olivia; Mallick, Swapan; Nieves-Colón, Maria A.; Li, Heng; Alpaslan-Roodenberg, Songül (2020-03-04). "Differential DNA methylation of vocal and facial anatomy genes in modern humans". Nature Communications. 11 (1): 1189. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15020-6. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 7055320. PMID 32132541. S2CID 211836430.
  18. ^ Gokhman, David; Mishol, Nadav; Manuel, Marc de; Juan, David de; Shuqrun, Jonathan; Meshorer, Eran; Marques-Bonet, Tomas; Rak, Yoel; Carmel, Liran (2019-09-19). "Reconstructing Denisovan Anatomy Using DNA Methylation Maps". Cell. 179 (1): 180–192.e10. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.035. ISSN 0092-8674. PMID 31539495. S2CID 202676502.
  19. ^ Science. "And the biggest scientific breakthrough of 2019 is …". vis.sciencemag.org. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
  20. ^ "Top 10 stories of 2019: A black hole picture, measles outbreaks, climate protests and more, Science News Staff".
  21. ^ a b "Home".
  22. ^ Meshorer, E.; Bryk, B.; Toiber, D.; Cohen, J.; Podoly, E.; Dori, A.; Soreq, H. (2005). "SC35 promotes sustainable stress-induced alternative splicing of neuronal acetylcholinesterase mRNA". Molecular Psychiatry. 10 (11): 985–997. doi:10.1038/sj.mp.4001735. PMID 16116489. S2CID 18772895.
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