Dr. Iris Dror

Dr. Iris Dror
Principal Investigator
Dr. Iris Dror
Senior Lecturer
Research Group Leader
PhD

Our lab is dedicated to understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression, chromatin state, and genome organization, including:

  1. Mechanisms and functions of long non-coding RNA: We are particularly interested in the long non-coding RNA XIST, which is the master regulator of X-chromosome inactivation. We investigate how XIST modulates gene expression and chromatin state across developmental stages in human and mouse models.
  2. Transcriptional control of cell fate: By leveraging cellular reprogramming, we study how transcription factors influence gene networks that determine cell fate decisions. Our goal is to uncover the mechanisms by which cells adopt and maintain specific identities, with implications for regenerative medicine and developmental biology.
  3. 3D genome architecture and chromatin dynamics: The three-dimensional organization of the genome profoundly influences gene expression. We explore the spatial arrangement of chromatin and its interactions with transcriptional regulation in various cellular contexts, aiming to unravel how these interactions impact cell function and identity.
CV

Academic Education

2021 - 2024  Assistant Project Scientist, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Plath lab, Department of Biological Chemistry.
2015 - 2021 Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Plath lab, Department of Biological Chemistry.
2009 - 2015 Ph.D., Faculty of Biology, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. Topic: “New computational approaches to study protein-nucleic acid recognition". Advisor: Prof. Yael Mandel-Gutfreund.    
2011 - 2013 Visiting student, Molecular and Computational Biology Program, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA. Advisor: Dr. Remo Rohs.    
2007 - 2009 B.Sc., Faculty of Biology, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. Final project topic: “Assessing transcription factor motifs by comparing transcription factor expression to gene expression".

Awards

2014 Israel ministry of science - Women in science fellowship
2012 Irwin and Joan Jacobs fellowship 
2011, 2013 Honorary excellence scholarship from the faculty of biology 
    

Scientific Publications

A critical role for X-chromosome architecture in mammalian X-chromosome dosage compensation

Dror I, Tan T, Plath K
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2024 Aug;87:102235
2024

XIST directly regulates X-linked and autosomal genes in naïve human pluripotent cells

Dror I, Chitiashvili T, Tan S, Cano C, Sahakyan A, Markaki Y, Chronis C, Collier A, Deng W, Liang G, Sun Y, Afasizheva A, Miller J, Xiao W, Black D, Ding F, Plath K
Cell. 2024 Jan 4;187(1):110-129.e31
2024

Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated Signaling Delays Skin Pigmentation upon UV Exposure by Mediating MITF Function toward DNA Repair Mode

Elkoshi N, Parikh S, Malcov-Brog H, Parikh R, Manich P, Netti F, Maliah A, Elkoshi H, Haj M, Rippin I, Frand J, Perluk T, Haiat-Factor R, Golan T, Regev-Rudzki N, Kiper E, Brenner R, Gonen P, Dror I, Levi H, Hameiri O, Cohen-Gulkar M, Eldar-Finkelman H, Ast G, Nizri E, Ziv Y, Elkon R, Khaled M, Ebenstein Y, Shiloh Y, Levy C.
J Invest Dermatol. 2023 Dec;143(12):2494-2506.e4.
2023

FGFR3 is expressed by human primordial germ cells and is repressed after meiotic initiation to form primordial oocytes

Chitiashvili T, Hsu FM, Dror I, Plath K, Clark A.
Stem Cell Reports. 2022 Jun 14;17(6):1268-1278
2022

Xist nucleates local protein gradients to propagate silencing across the X chromosome

Markaki Y, Chong JG, Wang Y, Jacobson EC, Luong C, Tan SYX, Jachowicz JW, Strehle M, Maestrini D, Banerjee AK, Mistry BA, Dror I, Dossin F, Schӧneberg J, Heard E, Guttman M, Chou T, Plath K.
Cell. 2021 Dec 9;184(25):6212
2021

Female human primordial germ cells display X-chromosome dosage compensation despite the absence of X-inactivation

Chitiashvili T, Dror I, Kim R, Hsu FM, Chaudhari R, Pandolfi E, Chen D, Liebscher S, Schenke-Layland K, Plath K, Clark A.
Nat Cell Biol. 2020 Dec;22(12):1436-1446
2020

UV-Protection Timer Controls Linkage between Stress and Pigmentation Skin Protection Systems

Malcov-Brog H, Alpert A, Golan T, Parikh S, Nordlinger A, Netti F, Sheinboim D, Dror I, Thomas L, Cosson C, Gonen P, Stanevsky Y, Brenner R, Perluk T, Frand J, Elgavish S, Nevo Y, Rahat D, Tabach Y, Khaled M, Shen-Orr SS, Levy C.
Mol Cell. 2018 Nov 1;72(3):444-456.e7
2018

OCT4 impedes cell fate redirection by the melanocyte lineage master regulator MITF in mouse ESCs

Sheinboim D, Maza I, Dror I, Parikh S, Krupalnik V, Bell RE, Zviran A, Suita Y, Hakim O, Mandel-Gutfreund Y, Khaled M.
Nature Communications. 2017 Oct 18;8(1):1022
2017

Sequences flanking the core-binding site modulate glucocorticoid receptor structure and activity

Schöne S, Jurk M, Helabad MB, Dror I, Lebars I, Kieffer B, Imhof P, Rohs R, Vingron M, Thomas-Chollier M, Meijsing SH.
Nature communications. 2016 Sep 1;7:12621
2016

How motif environment influences transcription factor search dynamics: Finding a needle in a haystack

Dror I, Rohs R, Mandel‐Gutfreund Y.
BioEssays. 2016 Jul 1;38(7):605-12
2016

A widespread role of the motif environment in transcription factor binding across diverse protein families

Dror I, Golan T, Levy C, Rohs R, Mandel-Gutfreund Y.
Genome research. 2015 Sep 1;25(9):1268-80. (Selected for top ten paper awards in RECOMB conference 2016)
2015

Deconvolving the recognition of DNA shape from sequence

Abe N, Dror I, Yang L, Slattery M, Zhou T, Bussemaker HJ, Rohs R, Mann RS.
Cell. 2015 Apr 9;161(2):307-18. (Selected for top ten paper awards in RECOMB conference 2015)
2015

TFBSshape: a motif database for DNA shape features of transcription factor binding sites

Yang L, Zhou T, Dror I, Mathelier A, Wasserman WW, Gordân R, Rohs R.
Nucleic acids research. 2013 Nov 7;42(D1):D148-55. (Selected as Nucleic Acid Research breakthrough article)
2014

Covariation between homeodomain transcription factors and the shape of their DNA binding sites

Dror I, Zhou T, Mandel-Gutfreund Y, Rohs R.
Nucleic acids research. 2013 Sep 27;42(1):430-41. (Selected as the Faculty of Biology, Technion, paper of the month)
2014

DNAshape: a method for the high-throughput prediction of DNA structural features on a genomic scale

Zhou T, Yang L, Lu Y, Dror I, Dantas Machado AC, Ghane T, Di Felice R, Rohs R.
Nucleic acids research. 2013 May 22;41(W1):W56-62
2013

Genomic regions flanking E-box binding sites influence DNA binding specificity of bHLH transcription factors through DNA shape

Gordân R, Shen N, Dror I, Zhou T, Horton J, Rohs R, Bulyk ML.
Cell reports. 2013 Apr 25;3(4):1093-104. (Selected for top ten paper awards in RECOMB 2013)
2013

Proteopedia: 3D visualization and annotation of transcription factor–DNA readout modes

Machado AC, Saleebyan SB, Holmes BT, Karelina M, Tam J, Kim SY, Kim KH, Dror I, Hodis E, Martz E, Compeau PA
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education. 2012 Nov 1;40(6):400-1
2012

Predicting nucleic acid binding interfaces from structural models of proteins

Dror I, Shazman S, Mukherjee S, Zhang Y, Glaser F, Mandel‐Gutfreund Y
Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics. 2012 Feb 1;80(2):482-9
2012

Cofactor binding evokes latent differences in DNA binding specificity between Hox proteins

Slattery M, Riley T, Liu P, Abe N, Gomez-Alcala P, Dror I, Zhou T, Rohs R, Honig B, Bussemaker HJ, Mann RS
Cell. 2011 Dec 9;147(6):1270-82. (Selected for top ten paper awards in RECOMB conference 2011)
2011

SFmap: a web server for motif analysis and prediction of splicing factor binding sites

Paz I, Akerman M, Dror I, Kosti I, Mandel-Gutfreund Y.
Nucleic acids research. 2010 May 25;38(suppl_2):W281-5
2010