Lea Haarup Gregersen

Lea Haarup Gregersen is an Associate Professor and Group Leader at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. Her research focuses on understanding fundamental biological mechanisms underlying transcriptional regulation and processing of nascent RNA in mammalian cells, particularly how misregulation of these processes contributes to human diseases such as cancer.

Dr. Gregersen earned her MSc in Biochemistry from Copenhagen University, Denmark, followed by a PhD in Biochemistry from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany in 2009. She completed postdoctoral training at the Francis Crick Institute in London under Jesper Svejstrup, supported by an EMBO long-term fellowship, before returning to Copenhagen in 2021 to establish her own research group.

Her research primarily investigates transcriptional integrity, focusing on RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) and its C-terminal domain (CTD). She studies how proteins interacting with the RNAPII CTD impact co-transcriptional RNA processing events. Her lab is particularly interested in the regulation of the transition between transcription elongation and termination, and the molecular mechanisms of RNAPII CTD-interacting proteins such as SCAF4 and SCAF8, which function as mRNA anti-terminators. Her team employs advanced molecular biology techniques including CRISPR-modified cell lines and next-generation sequencing approaches (RNA-seq, TTchem-seq, mNET-seq) to investigate transcription regulation at single-nucleotide resolution.

Dr. Gregersen's publications reveal a strong focus on transcriptional mechanisms, with recent work developing innovative methodologies like ELCAP and TTchem-seq. Her research spans molecular mechanisms of transcription, RNA processing, genome stability, and their implications for disease development, particularly cancer.

• Novo Nordisk Foundation Hallas-Møller emerging investigation grant
• Danish Council for Independent Research (Sapere Aude Research Leader Program)
• European Research Council (ERC starting grant)
• EMBO long-term fellowship

Dr. Gregersen leads the Gregersen Lab at the University of Copenhagen, which is supported by multiple competitive grants. Her team develops and applies innovative methodologies such as ELCAP (Elongation factor-specific mNET capture) and TTchem-seq to investigate transcription regulation. The lab focuses on understanding how errors in transcriptional regulation contribute to disease development, with potential implications for cancer research. Her work bridges basic molecular mechanisms with potential clinical applications through understanding how transcriptional misregulation contributes to human disease.