| Our Faculty

Alexander Meissner, Ph.D.

The Meissner laboratory uses genomic tools to study stem cell biology with a particular focus on epigenetic reprogramming.

The term “epigenetic” refers to stable modifications of the chromatin and DNA that do not alter the primary nucleotide sequence. The global epigenetic makeup of a cell is a powerful indicator of its developmental state and potential. We apply next generation sequencing technologies to study the epigenome in early development, stem cells and cancer.

We are developing and applying high-throughput bisulfite sequencing (HTBS) technologies for genome-wide (nucleotide resolution) DNA methylation analysis. To gain insights into the interaction and regulation of epigenetic modifications (histone modifications and DNA methylation) we use loss of function and gain of function systems.

Pluripotent stem cells have enormous potential for regenerative medicine, and provide a powerful tool for studies in developmental biology and pharmacology. Recent advances in transforming somatic cells directly into pluripotent (iPS) cells provide an attractive avenue for generating patient-specific stem cells. Our lab is identifying the epigenetic changes and components involved in reprogramming and maintaining cellular states.

Alexander Meissner completed his Ph.D. studies with Rudolf Jaenisch at the Whitehead Institute/MIT in 2002. He worked with Rudolf Jaenisch and Eric Lander before starting his own lab in HSCRB, and as an associate member of the Broad Institute, in 2008. In addition to his research in HSCRB, Meissner is Director and Head of the Department of Genome regulation at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, Germany.

  • Visiting Scholar in Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology
    Harvard University
  • Director and Head of the Department of Genome Regulation
    Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics
  • Member
    European Molecular Biology Organization

Contact Information

alexander_meissner@harvard.edu

Faculty Assistant

Syed Zaman
Bauer 306, 7 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
syedzaman@fas.harvard.edu
617-496-9446

Related

Featured Publications

  • Ziller MJ, Ortega JA, Quinlan KA, Santos DP, Gu H, Martin EJ, Galonska C, Pop R, Maidl S, Di Pardo A, Huang M, Meltzer HY, Gnirke A, Heckman CJ, Meissner A, Kiskinis E. 2018. Dissecting the Functional Consequences of De Novo DNA Methylation Dynamics in Human Motor Neuron Differentiation and Physiology. Cell stem cell. 22(4):559-574.e9. Pubmed: 29551301
    Read Abstract
  • Galonska C, Charlton J, Mattei AL, Donaghey J, Clement K, Gu H, Mohammad AW, Stamenova EK, Cacchiarelli D, Klages S, Timmermann B, Cantz T, Schöler HR, Gnirke A, Ziller MJ, Meissner A. 2018. Genome-wide tracking of dCas9-methyltransferase footprints. Nature communications. 9(1):597. Pubmed: 29426832 DOI:10.1038/s41467-017-02708-5
    Read Abstract
  • Donaghey J, Thakurela S, Charlton J, Chen JS, Smith ZD, Gu H, Pop R, Clement K, Stamenova EK, Karnik R, Kelley DR, Gifford CA, Cacchiarelli D, Rinn JL, Gnirke A, Ziller MJ, Meissner A. 2018. Genetic determinants and epigenetic effects of pioneer-factor occupancy. Nature genetics. 50(2):250-258. Pubmed: 29358654 DOI:10.1038/s41588-017-0034-3
    Read Abstract
  • Gaiti F, Chaligne R, Gu H, Brand RM, Kothen-Hill S, Schulman RC, Grigorev K, Risso D, Kim KT, Pastore A, Huang KY, Alonso A, Sheridan C, Omans ND, Biederstedt E, Clement K, Wang L, Felsenfeld JA, Bhavsar EB, Aryee MJ, Allan JN, Furman R, Gnirke A, Wu CJ, Meissner A, Landau DA. 2019. Epigenetic evolution and lineage histories of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Nature. 569(7757):576-580. Pubmed: 31092926 DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1198-z
    Read Abstract
  • Chan MM, Smith ZD, Grosswendt S, Kretzmer H, Norman TM, Adamson B, Jost M, Quinn JJ, Yang D, Jones MG, Khodaverdian A, Yosef N, Meissner A, Weissman JS. 2019. Molecular recording of mammalian embryogenesis. Nature. 570(7759):77-82. Pubmed: 31086336 DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1184-5
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  • Pastore A, Gaiti F, Lu SX, Brand RM, Kulm S, Chaligne R, Gu H, Huang KY, Stamenova EK, Béguelin W, Jiang Y, Schulman RC, Kim KT, Alonso A, Allan JN, Furman RR, Gnirke A, Wu CJ, Melnick AM, Meissner A, Bernstein BE, Abdel-Wahab O, Landau DA. 2019. Corrupted coordination of epigenetic modifications leads to diverging chromatin states and transcriptional heterogeneity in CLL. Nature communications. 10(1):1874. Pubmed: 31015400 DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-09645-5
    Read Abstract
  • Hinohara K, Wu HJ, Sébastien Vigneau, McDonald TO, Igarashi KJ, Yamamoto KN, Madsen T, Fassl A, Egri SB, Papanastasiou M, Ding L, Peluffo G, Cohen O, Kales SC, Lal-Nag M, Rai G, Maloney DJ, Jadhav A, Simeonov A, Wagle N, Brown M, Meissner A, Sicinski P, Jaffe JD, Jeselsohn R, Gimelbrant AA, Michor F, Polyak K. 2019. KDM5 Histone Demethylase Activity Links Cellular Transcriptomic Heterogeneity to Therapeutic Resistance. Cancer cell. 35(2):330-332. Pubmed: 30753830 DOI:S1535-6108(19)30046-7
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