With an ISCRM fellowship award, Brenda Garibay investigates whether HP1BP3, an H1-like histone protein, is essential for epigenetic memory in heterochromatin. Using human iPSCs, she aims to uncover how HP1BP3 regulates chromatin architecture by defining its interactome via overexpression and immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry. She will also utilize CRISPR/Cas9 and an auxin-inducible degradation system to deplete endogenous HP1BP3 and assess rescue with targeted mutants, thereby evaluating its role in maintaining H3K9me3-marked heterochromatin and gene silencing. Findings from this work will reveal how chromatin compaction is inherited across cell generations and offer new insight into heterochromatin-based gene regulation and memory.
