He is the founder and main organizer of the biennial EMBL meeting on transcription and a member of EMBO since 1992. He is the coordinator of the EU-FP6 Integrated Project HEROIC which focuses on Highthroughput Epigenetic Regulatory Organisation In Chromatin which focuses on Embryonic Stem cells and their derivatives, participates in EU-FP6 IP EPITRON. His major tasks in EPITRON are ChIP-seq profiling of oncogenic translocation fusion proteins in AML and performing proteomics analysis of alterations in post-translational modification following epi-drug treatment. Partner HS is further involved in the EU-FP6 STREP ChILL which aims at establishing and implementing novel, highly sensitive protocols of ChIP and ChIP-seq for the use on small numbers of cells.

Research in the Department of Molecular Biology focuses on the regulation of gene transcription and chromatin remodeling in normal and deregulated cells. His research aims at deciphering genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation during development, differentiation and in cancer. Among such mechanisms, DNA methylation provides the best documented example of stable silencing of genes by epigenetic means. Oncogenic transformation is associated with abnormally methylated tumor suppressor gene promoters and concurrent repression. DNA hypermethylation has been especially well documented for promoter-CpG islands, and it is estimated that several hundreds of promoter-CpG islands may become silenced in transformed cells. The technology involved in deciphering epigenetic signatures in the laboratory includes MeDIP (Methyl-DNA immunoprecipitation). This technique is based on capturing of methylated DNA fragments using a monoclonal antibody that recognizes the 5-methyl-cytosine base and will be used in CancerDip to perform global analysis of DNA methylation in cancer and normal cells.