NATHALIE DOSTATNI

Nathalie Dostatni is a Professor at Sorbonne University and Research Team Leader at the Curie Institute, affiliated with the Core Dynamics (UMR3664) research unit. She has held senior research positions since 2012, focusing on epigenetic mechanisms that govern cell identity during embryonic development and their implications in cancer biology.

• Epigenetic plasticity and polarity of the embryo
• Chromatin dynamics in development
• Transcriptional regulation by morphogen gradients
• Genome integrity in germ stem cells

Her recent work combines interdisciplinary approaches (genetics, biophysics, and quantitative imaging) to dissect the role of chromatin assembly factors like CAF-1 in heterochromatin formation and the transcriptional precision of morphogens like Bicoid in Drosophila embryos.

Publications highlight her contributions to understanding stochastic transcriptional dynamics, sharp gene expression borders, and chromatin-mediated genome stability. Collaborations include biophysicists (M. Coppey at Institut Curie/UMR168, C. Fradin at McMaster University) and theoreticians (A. Walczak at ENS, Paris).

Her lab investigates chromatin dynamics in two key contexts: (1) CAF-1's role in meiotic cells and germ stem cells, and (2) Bicoid morphogen gradient interpretation in transcriptional precision. The team utilizes Drosophila as a model organism for genetic and imaging studies.