Yuval Ebenstein
Tel-Aviv University

Associate Editor
Biophysical Reports

What are you currently working on that excites you??

In the last year, I have opened a new front of research in my lab trying to connect a psychological state of an individual with molecular transformations in the brain. Specifically, epigenetic patterns of chemical modifications along genomic DNA in brain cells have been shown to change in response to various types of mental stress. Our lab has developed a toolbox for single-molecule studies of DNA modifications, which we are now utilizing to map various mouse brain regions for changes associated with depression in depressed versus happy mice.

At a cocktail party of non-scientists, how would you explain what you do?

Hi, I’m a physical epigeneticist. I’m trying to find out if, and how, a chemical code on our DNA makes us who we are. Each one of us has a unique and personal genome, but all the different cell types that make us have exactly the same genetic code—our personal genome. How can different cell types display distinct shape and function despite having the same execution code? It turns out that additional information is encoded by chemical modifications to the DNA bases. This epigenetic code controls which parts of the genome are used by each type of cell according to its function (skin, liver, etc.). The modified DNA bases may be converted back to their original state, thus allowing cells to write and erase functional information—a molecular memory. My lab develops techniques to read epigenetic patterns on DNA and relate them to physiological conditions such as cancer. We profile DNA molecules one by one, which provides extreme sensitivity for cancer diagnosis. It also allows us to measure epigenetic entropy. But that’s a whole different story.