W. Bender

W. Bender, Ph.D., serves as the Harold T. White Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School, Harvard University. He leads an active research laboratory investigating epigenetic mechanisms using the Drosophila bithorax complex as a foundational model system for Polycomb-mediated repression.

His research centers on how Polycomb group proteins establish stable cellular memory of developmental decisions through chromatin modifications, particularly H3K27me3 methylation. The lab studies the 300+ kb bithorax complex where homeotic genes are collinearly arranged with body segments, dissecting regulatory domains, boundary elements, and non-coding RNA functions. Current work includes analyzing segment-specific chromatin states through nuclei isolated from individual embryonic segments and investigating long-range enhancer interactions and structural organization of the complex.

In collaboration with Bob Kingston's lab, the team has identified linear progression of active/repressed chromatin domains across regulatory regions. They also examine functional roles of non-coding transcripts, including a microRNA whose deletion causes reproductive defects through derepression of homeotic genes in the nervous system, aiming to uncover novel molecular mechanisms in epigenetic regulation.