Dr Desislava Staneva

My project aims to characterize the molecular signatures that define the embryonic epiblast lineage and distinguish it from the extraembryonic lineages (trophectoderm and primitive endoderm) in early mammalian development. In particular, I am studying the role of transcription factors in regulating epiblast gene expression and how this regulation changes throughout pre-implantation development. To achieve this, I am optimising methods such as CUT&RUN to map the genome-wide occupancy of transcription factors. Additionally, I am employing CRISPR/Cas9 to knock out specific transcription factors to study their functional roles in cell lineage segregation and gene expression regulation during early development.