Danny F. Reinberg

New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York.  Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.  Studies of mammalian gene expression with emphasis on underlying molecular mechanisms in the context of increasingly complex and biologically relevant DNA templates.  Starting with reconstitution of specific transcription on naked DNA by RNA polymerase II (RNAPII), several essential factors and their functions were identified as well as the sequence of initiation reactions.  Establishing more complex templates reflective of chromatin with the inherent obstacles posed by nucleosomal constituents led to the discoveries of novel factors and their requisite roles in facilitating RNAPII formation of initiation complexes as well as for its traversal through impeding nucleosomes.  Such chromatin templates set the stage for analyses of epigenetic features that are both independent of DNA sequence and heritable, and that ultimately impact chromatin structure and RNAPII accessibility.  Focusing on key modifications of histones associated with gene repression led to the mechanistic details of their catalysis, their contribution to transcriptional repression, and in some cases the means by which such modifications can be inherited for continued gene repression.  Moving to the complexity of a whole organism, investigations were initiated into the epigenetic blueprint engendering a social insect: ants.