SUMMARY
The research of Brooke R. Druliner, Ph.D., focuses on the molecular mechanisms of healthy and disrupted epigenetic memory programs in the context of chromatin that regulate intestinal stem cell function. Dr. Druliner's laboratory combines chromatin and stem cell biology approaches and organoid models of stem cells. She uses these approaches to study intestinal stem cell regulation across multiple disease contexts. Dr. Druliner also studies advanced technologies, including genome engineering and single-cell multiomics.
A key question in the biology of stem cells is how they maintain stemness, their ability to balance self-renewal and a new pathway of terminal differentiation. Because there are no differences in the DNA sequence between stem and daughter cells, stemness is maintained through an epigenetic memory program. Epigenetic memory involves lasting modifications to chromatin at multiple scales. This process impacts transcriptional programs required for healthy stem cell function.
Focus areas
- Epigenomic memory mechanisms regulating intestinal stem cells in homeostasis and disease. The laboratory of Dr. Druliner identifies the mechanisms that maintain the epigenetic state across the continuum of epithelial stem cell renewal, expansion and cell-type specification in healthy and disrupted stem cell regulation. Through her research, Dr. Druliner answers the overarching question of whether intestinal stem cells retain a memory of altered chromatin machinery and resultant architectures in disease.
- Organoids and multicellular model systems. Dr. Druliner and her colleagues have generated organoids from patients at Mayo Clinic. This research includes both healthy and diseased tissues, including tissues from patients with colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. Dr. Druliner's work also includes increasing the system complexity to recapitulate the multicellular context of an organ and its microenvironment in an in vitro system.
- Applying a genome engineering toolkit to organoid models. The organoid model system allows genome editing in stem cells, which then divide and give rise to other progenitor and differentiated epithelial cell types within the organoid. Dr. Druliner's team and collaborators apply established and new gene-editing technologies to characterize the epigenetic factors required for stem cell maintenance. The team is also developing a functional toolkit of genetic engineering approaches for organoid systems, which will be available for use by the scientific community.
Significance to patient care
Dr. Druliner's laboratory team studies the basic biology of diseases that affect the gastrointestinal tract, including colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. By adding to the understanding of how healthy and disrupted epigenetic memory programs control intestinal stem cell function, Dr. Druliner could help develop new ways to predict or treat these diseases.
Professional highlights
- Mayo Clinic:
- Director, Human Model Systems Core, 2026-present.
- KL2 Mentored Career Development Award, Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, 2020-present.
- Loan Repayment Program Award, Division of Loan Repayment, National Institutes of Health, 2021-present.
- American Gastroenterological Association:
- Member, Research Award Panel, 2021-present.
- Member, 2016-present.
- Fellowship Award, Minnesota Colorectal Cancer Research Foundation, 2019-2020.