Publications

SELECT RECENT PUBLICATIONS

  1. Gourisankar S, Nettles SA, Wenderski W, Paulo JA, Kim SH, Roepke KC, Ellis C, Abuzaid HZ, Gygi SP, Crabtree GR. Synaptic activity causes minute-scale changes in BAF complex composition and function. Mol Cell. 2025;85(12):2374-2389.e11. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2025.05.017.
  2. Nix MN, Gourisankar S, Sarott RC, Dwyer BG, Nettles SA, Martinez MM, Abuzaid H, Yang H, Wang Y, Simanauskaite JM, Romero BA, Jones HM, Krokhotin A, Lowensohn TN, Chen L, Low C, Davis MM, Fernandez D, Zhang T, Green MR, Hinshaw SM, Gray NS, Crabtree GR. A bivalent molecular glue linking lysine acetyltransferases to oncogene-induced cell death. bioRxiv. 2025;2025.03.14.643404. doi:10.1101/2025.03.14.643404. Preprint.
  3. Sarott RC, Gourisankar S, Karim B, Nettles S, Yang H, Dwyer BG, Simanauskaite JM, Tse J, Abuzaid H, Krokhotin A, Zhang T, Hinshaw SM, Green MR, Crabtree GR, Gray NS. Relocalizing transcriptional kinases to activate apoptosis. Science. 2024;386(6717):eadl5361. doi:10.1126/science.adl5361.
  4. Van Der Byl W, Nüssing S, Peters TJ, Ahn A, Li H, Ledergor G, David E, Koh AS, Wagle MV, Deguit CDT, de Menezes MN, Travers A, Sampurno S, Ramsbottom KM, Li R, Kallies A, Beavis PA, Jungmann R, Bastings MMC, Belz GT, Goel S, Trapani JA, Crabtree GR, Chang HY, Amit I, Goodnow CC, Luciani F, Parish IA. The CD8⁺ T cell tolerance checkpoint triggers a distinct differentiation state defined by protein translation defects. Immunity. 2024;57(6):1324-1344.e8. doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2024.04.026.
  5. Gamble N, Bradu A, Caldwell JA, McKeever J, Bolonduro O, Ermis E, Kaiser C, Kim Y, Parks B, Klemm S, Greenleaf WJ, Crabtree GR, Koh AS. PU.1 and BCL11B sequentially cooperate with RUNX1 to anchor mSWI/SNF to poise the T cell effector landscape. Nat Immunol. 2024;25(5):860-872. doi:10.1038/s41590-024-01807-y.
  6. Gourisankar S, Krokhotin A, Wenderski W, Crabtree GR. Context-specific functions of chromatin remodellers in development and disease. Nat Rev Genet. 2024;25(5):340-361. doi:10.1038/s41576-023-00666-x. (Review)
  7. Gourisankar S, Krokhotin A, Ji W, Liu X, Chang CY, Kim SH, Li Z, Wenderski W, Simanauskaite JM, Yang H, Vogel H, Zhang T, Green MR, Gray NS, Crabtree GR. Rewiring cancer drivers to activate apoptosis. Nature. 2023;620(7973):417-425. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06348-2.
  8. Hagihara H, Shoji H, Kuroiwa M, Graef IA, Crabtree GR, Nishi A, Miyakawa T. Forebrain-specific conditional calcineurin deficiency induces dentate gyrus immaturity and hyper-dopaminergic signaling in mice. Mol Brain. 2022;15(1):94. doi:10.1186/s13041-022-00981-0.
  9. Fulton SL, Wenderski W, Lepack AE, Eagle AL, Fanutza T, Bastle RM, Ramakrishnan A, Hays EC, Neal A, Bendl J, Farrelly LA, Al-Kachak A, Lyu Y, Cetin B, Chan JC, Tran TN, Neve RL, Roper RJ, Brennand KJ, Roussos P, Schimenti JC, Friedman AK, Shen L, Blitzer RD, Robison AJ, Crabtree GR, Maze I. Rescue of deficits by Brwd1 copy number restoration in the Ts65Dn mouse model of Down syndrome. Nat Commun. 2022;13(1):6384. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-34200-0.
  10. Chang CY, Shipony Z, Lin SG, Kuo A, Xiong X, Loh KM, Greenleaf WJ, Crabtree GR. Increased ACTL6A occupancy within mSWI/SNF chromatin remodelers drives human squamous cell carcinoma. Mol Cell. 2021;81(24):4964-4978.e8. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2021.10.005.
  11. Walsh JJ, Llorach P, Cardozo Pinto DF, Wenderski W, Christoffel DJ, Salgado JS, Heifets BD, Crabtree GR, Malenka RC. Systemic enhancement of serotonin signaling reverses social deficits in multiple mouse models for ASD. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2021;46(11):2000-2010. doi:10.1038/s41386-021-01091-6.
  12. Weber CM, Hafner A, Kirkland JG, Braun SMG, Stanton BZ, Boettiger AN, Crabtree GR. mSWI/SNF promotes Polycomb repression both directly and through genome-wide redistribution. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2021;28(6):501-511. doi:10.1038/s41594-021-00604-7.
  13. Braun SMG, Petrova R, Tang J, Krokhotin A, Miller EL, Tang Y, Panagiotakos G, Crabtree GR. BAF subunit switching regulates chromatin accessibility to control cell cycle exit in the developing mammalian cortex. Genes Dev. 2021;35(5–6):335–353. doi:10.1101/gad.342345.120.
  14. Lo YH, Kolahi KS, Du Y, Chang CY, Krokhotin A, Nair A, Sobba WD, Karlsson K, Jones SJ, Longacre TA, Mah AT, Tercan B, Sockell A, Xu H, Seoane JA, Chen J, Shmulevich I, Weissman JS, Curtis C, Califano A, Fu H, Crabtree GR, Kuo CJ. A CRISPR/Cas9-engineered ARID1A-deficient human gastric cancer organoid model reveals essential and nonessential modes of oncogenic transformation. Cancer Discov. 2021;11(6):1562–1581. doi:10.1158/2159-8290.CD-20-1109.
  15. Ni K, Ren J, Xu X, He Y, Finney R, Braun SMG, Hathaway NA, Crabtree GR, Muegge K. LSH mediates gene repression through macroH2A deposition. Nat Commun. 2020;11(1):5647. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-19159-0.
  16. Sood S, Weber CM, Hodges HC, Krokhotin A, Shalizi A, Crabtree GR. CHD8 dosage regulates transcription in pluripotency and early murine neural differentiation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020;117(36):22331–22340. doi:10.1073/pnas.1921963117.
  17. Chory EJ, Kirkland JG, Chang CY, D’Andrea VD, Gourisankar S, Dykhuizen EC, Crabtree GR. Chemical inhibitors of a selective SWI/SNF function synergize with ATR inhibition in cancer cell killing. ACS Chem Biol. 2020;15(6):1685–1696. doi:10.1021/acschembio.0c00312.
  18. Wenderski W, Wang L, Krokhotin A, Walsh JJ, Li H, Shoji H, Ghosh S, George RD, Miller EL, Elias L, Gillespie MA, Son EY, Staahl BT, Baek ST, Stanley V, Moncada C, Shipony Z, Linker SB, Marchetto MCN, Gage FH, Chen D, Sultan T, Zaki MS, Ranish JA, Miyakawa T, Luo L, Malenka RC, Crabtree GR, Gleeson JG. Loss of the neural-specific BAF subunit ACTL6B relieves repression of early response genes and causes recessive autism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020;117(18):10055–10066. doi:10.1073/pnas.1908238117.
  19. Seoane JA, Kirkland JG, Caswell-Jin JL, Crabtree GR, Curtis C. Chromatin regulators mediate anthracycline sensitivity in breast cancer. Nat Med. 2019;25(11):1721–1727. doi:10.1038/s41591-019-0638-5.
  20. Chory EJ, Calarco JP, Hathaway NA, Bell O, Neel DS, Crabtree GR. Nucleosome turnover regulates histone methylation patterns over the genome. Mol Cell. 2019;73(1):61–72.e3. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2018.10.028.
  21. Emmel EA, Verweij CL, Durand DB, Higgins KM, Lacy E, Crabtree GR. Pillars Article: Cyclosporin A specifically inhibits function of nuclear proteins involved in T cell activation. J Immunol. 2018;201(11):3149–3152. (Reprinted from Science 1989;246:1617–1620.)
  22. Marian CA, Stoszko M, Wang L, Leighty MW, de Crignis E, Maschinot CA, Gatchalian J, Carter BC, Chowdhury B, Hargreaves DC, Duvall JR, Crabtree GR, Mahmoudi T, Dykhuizen EC. Small molecule targeting of specific BAF (mSWI/SNF) complexes for HIV latency reversal. Cell Chem Biol. 2018;25(12):1443–1455.e14. doi:10.1016/j.chembiol.2018.08.004.
  23. Stanton BZ, Chory EJ, Crabtree GR. Chemically induced proximity in biology and medicine. Science. 2018;359(6380):eaao5902. doi:10.1126/science.aao5902. (Review)
  24. Koh AS, Miller EL, Buenrostro JD, Moskowitz DM, Wang J, Greenleaf WJ, Chang HY, Crabtree GR. Rapid chromatin repression by Aire provides precise control of immune tolerance. Nat Immunol. 2018;19(2):162–172. doi:10.1038/s41590-017-0032-8.
  25. Hodges HC, Stanton BZ, Cermakova K, Chang CY, Miller EL, Kirkland JG, Ku WL, Veverka V, Zhao K, Crabtree GR. Dominant-negative SMARCA4 mutants alter the accessibility landscape of tissue-unrestricted enhancers. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2018;25(1):61–72. doi:10.1038/s41594-017-0007-3.
  26. Braun SMG, Kirkland JG, Chory EJ, Husmann D, Calarco JP, Crabtree GR. Rapid and reversible epigenome editing by endogenous chromatin regulators. Nat Commun. 2017;8(1):560. doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00644-y.
  27. Morrison EA, Sanchez JC, Ronan JL, Farrell DP, Varzavand K, Johnson JK, Gu BX, Crabtree GR, Musselman CA. DNA binding drives the association of BRG1/hBRM bromodomains with nucleosomes. Nat Commun. 2017;8:16080. doi:10.1038/ncomms16080.
  28. Ren J, Hathaway NA, Crabtree GR, Muegge K. Tethering of Lsh at the Oct4 locus promotes gene repression associated with epigenetic changes. Epigenetics. 2018;13(2):173–181. doi:10.1080/15592294.2017.1338234.
  29. Platt RJ, Zhou Y, Slaymaker IM, Shetty AS, Weisbach NR, Kim JA, Sharma J, Desai M, Sood S, Kempton HR, Crabtree GR, Feng G, Zhang F. Chd8 mutation leads to autistic-like behaviors and impaired striatal circuits. Cell Rep. 2017;19(2):335–350. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2017.03.052.
  30. Stanton BZ, Hodges C, Crabtree GR, Zhao K. A general non-radioactive ATPase assay for chromatin remodeling complexes. Curr Protoc Chem Biol. 2017;9(1):1–10. doi:10.1002/cpch.16.
  31. Miller EL, Hargreaves DC, Kadoch C, Chang CY, Calarco JP, Hodges C, Buenrostro JD, Cui K, Greenleaf WJ, Zhao K, Crabtree GR. TOP2 synergizes with BAF chromatin remodeling for both resolution and formation of facultative heterochromatin. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2017;24(4):344–352. doi:10.1038/nsmb.3384.
  32. Kadoch C, Williams RT, Calarco JP, Miller EL, Weber CM, Braun SM, Pulice JL, Chory EJ, Crabtree GR. Dynamics of BAF-Polycomb complex opposition on heterochromatin in normal and oncogenic states. Nat Genet. 2017;49(2):213–222. doi:10.1038/ng.3734.
  33. Stanton BZ, Hodges C, Calarco JP, Braun SM, Ku WL, Kadoch C, Zhao K, Crabtree GR. Smarca4 ATPase mutations disrupt direct eviction of PRC1 from chromatin. Nat Genet. 2017;49(2):282–288. doi:10.1038/ng.3735.
  34. Krasteva V, Crabtree GR, Lessard JA. The BAF45a/PHF10 subunit of SWI/SNF-like chromatin remodeling complexes is essential for hematopoietic stem cell maintenance. Exp Hematol. 2017;48:58–71.e15. doi:10.1016/j.exphem.2016.11.008.
  35. Hodges C, Kirkland JG, Crabtree GR. The many roles of BAF (mSWI/SNF) and PBAF complexes in cancer. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2016;6(8):a026930. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a026930. (Review)
  36. Kadoch C, Crabtree GR. Mammalian SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes and cancer: Mechanistic insights gained from human genomics. Sci Adv. 2015;1(5):e1500447. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1500447. (Review)
  37. Zhan X, Cao M, Yoo AS, Zhang Z, Chen L, Crabtree GR, Wu JI. Generation of BAF53b-Cre transgenic mice with pan-neuronal Cre activities. Genesis. 2015;53(7):440–448. doi:10.1002/dvg.22866.
  38. Son EY, Crabtree GR. The role of BAF (mSWI/SNF) complexes in mammalian neural development. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet. 2014;166C(3):333–349. doi:10.1002/ajmg.c.31416. (Review)
  39. Buscarlet M, Krasteva V, Ho L, Simon C, Hébert J, Wilhelm B, Crabtree GR, Sauvageau G, Thibault P, Lessard JA. Essential role of BRG, the ATPase subunit of BAF chromatin remodeling complexes, in leukemia maintenance. Blood. 2014;123(11):1720–1728. doi:10.1182/blood-2013-02-483495.
  40. Takebayashi S, Lei I, Ryba T, Sasaki T, Dileep V, Battaglia D, Gao X, Fang P, Fan Y, Esteban MA, Tang J, Crabtree GR, Wang Z, Gilbert DM. Murine esBAF chromatin remodeling complex subunits BAF250a and Brg1 are necessary to maintain and reprogram pluripotency-specific replication timing of select replication domains. Epigenetics Chromatin. 2013;6(1):42. doi:10.1186/1756-8935-6-42.
  41. Staahl BT, Crabtree GR. Creating a neural specific chromatin landscape by npBAF and nBAF complexes. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2013;23(6):903–913. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2013.09.003. (Review)
  42. Tang J, Yoo AS, Crabtree GR. Reprogramming human fibroblasts to neurons by recapitulating an essential microRNA-chromatin switch. Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2013;23(5):591–598. doi:10.1016/j.gde.2013.07.001.
  43. Staahl BT, Tang J, Wu W, Sun A, Gitler AD, Yoo AS, Crabtree GR. Kinetic analysis of npBAF to nBAF switching reveals exchange of SS18 with CREST and integration with neural developmental pathways. J Neurosci. 2013;33(25):10348–10361. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1258-13.2013.
  44. Chesi A, Staahl BT, Jovičić A, Couthouis J, Fasolino M, Raphael AR, Yamazaki T, Elias L, Polak M, Kelly C, Williams KL, Fifita JA, Maragakis NJ, Nicholson GA, King OD, Reed R, Crabtree GR, Blair IP, Glass JD, Gitler AD. Exome sequencing to identify de novo mutations in sporadic ALS trios. Nat Neurosci. 2013;16(7):851–855. doi:10.1038/nn.3412.
  45. Dykhuizen EC, Hargreaves DC, Miller EL, Cui K, Korshunov A, Kool M, Pfister S, Cho YJ, Zhao K, Crabtree GR. BAF complexes facilitate decatenation of DNA by topoisomerase IIα. Nature. 2013;497(7451):624–627. doi:10.1038/nature12146.
  46. Kadoch C, Hargreaves DC, Hodges C, Elias L, Ho L, Ranish J, Crabtree GR. Proteomic and bioinformatic analysis of mammalian SWI/SNF complexes identifies extensive roles in human malignancy. Nat Genet. 2013;45(6):592–601. doi:10.1038/ng.2628.
  47. Ronan JL, Wu W, Crabtree GR. From neural development to cognition: unexpected roles for chromatin. Nat Rev Genet. 2013;14(5):347–359. doi:10.1038/nrg3413. (Review)
  48. Kadoch C, Crabtree GR. Reversible disruption of mSWI/SNF (BAF) complexes by the SS18-SSX oncogenic fusion in synovial sarcoma. Cell. 2013;153(1):71–85. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2013.02.036.
  49. Vogel-Ciernia A, Matheos DP, Barrett RM, Kramár EA, Azzawi S, Chen Y, Magnan CN, Zeller M, Sylvain A, Haettig J, Jia Y, Tran A, Dang R, Post RJ, Chabrier M, Babayan AH, Wu JI, Crabtree GR, Baldi P, Baram TZ, Lynch G, Wood MA. The neuron-specific chromatin regulatory subunit BAF53b is necessary for synaptic plasticity and memory. Nat Neurosci. 2013;16(5):552–561. doi:10.1038/nn.3359.
  50. Bao X, Tang J, Lopez-Pajares V, Tao S, Qu K, Crabtree GR, Khavari PA. ACTL6a enforces the epidermal progenitor state by suppressing SWI/SNF-dependent induction of KLF4. Cell Stem Cell. 2013;12(2):193–203. doi:10.1016/j.stem.2012.12.014.
  51. Sun AX, Crabtree GR, Yoo AS. MicroRNAs: regulators of neuronal fate. Curr Opin Cell Biol.
  52. Krasteva V, Buscarlet M, Diaz-Tellez A, Bernard MA, Crabtree GR, Lessard JA. The BAF53a subunit of SWI/SNF-like BAF complexes is essential for hemopoietic stem cell function. Blood. 2012;120(24):4720–4732. doi:10.1182/blood-2012-04-427047.
  53. Dykhuizen EC, Carmody LC, Tolliday N, Crabtree GR, Palmer MA. Screening for inhibitors of an essential chromatin remodeler in mouse embryonic stem cells by monitoring transcriptional regulation. J Biomol Screen. 2012;17(9):1221–1230. doi:10.1177/1087057112455060.
  54. Hodges C, Crabtree GR. Dynamics of inherently bounded histone modification domains. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012;109(33):13296–13301. doi:10.1073/pnas.1211172109.
  55. Pugh TJ, Weeraratne SD, Archer TC, Pomeranz Krummel DA, Auclair D, Bochicchio J, Carneiro MO, Carter SL, Cibulskis K, Erlich RL, Greulich H, Lawrence MS, Lennon NJ, McKenna A, Meldrim J, Ramos AH, Ross MG, Russ C, Shefler E, Sivachenko A, Sogoloff B, Stojanov P, Tamayo P, Mesirov JP, Amani V, Teider N, Sengupta S, Francois JP, Northcott PA, Taylor MD, Yu F, Crabtree GR, Kautzman AG, Gabriel SB, Getz G, Jäger N, Jones DT, Lichter P, Pfister SM, Roberts TM, Meyerson M, Pomeroy SL, Cho YJ. Medulloblastoma exome sequencing uncovers subtype-specific somatic mutations. Nature. 2012;488(7409):106–110. doi:10.1038/nature11329.
  56. Goodyer WR, Gu X, Liu Y, Bottino R, Crabtree GR, Kim SK. Neonatal β cell development in mice and humans is regulated by calcineurin/NFAT. Dev Cell. 2012;23(1):21–34. doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2012.05.014.
  57. Hathaway NA, Bell O, Hodges C, Miller EL, Neel DS, Crabtree GR. Dynamics and memory of heterochromatin in living cells. Cell. 2012;149(7):1447–1460. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2012.03.052.
  58. Ho L, Miller EL, Ronan JL, Ho WQ, Jothi R, Crabtree GR. esBAF facilitates pluripotency by conditioning the genome for LIF/STAT3 signalling and by regulating polycomb function. Nat Cell Biol. 2011;13(8):903–913. doi:10.1038/ncb2285.
  59. Yoo AS, Sun AX, Li L, Shcheglovitov A, Portmann T, Li Y, Lee-Messer C, Dolmetsch RE, Tsien RW, Crabtree GR. MicroRNA-mediated conversion of human fibroblasts to neurons. Nature. 2011;476(7359):228–231. doi:10.1038/nature10323.
  60. Liang FS, Ho WQ, Crabtree GR. Engineering the ABA plant stress pathway for regulation of induced proximity. Sci Signal. 2011;4(164):rs2. doi:10.1126/scisignal.2001449.
  61. Hargreaves DC, Crabtree GR. ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling: genetics, genomics and mechanisms. Cell Res. 2011;21(3):396–420. doi:10.1038/cr.2011.32. (Review)
  62. Shaw JP, Utz PJ, Durand DB, Toole JJ, Emmel EA, Crabtree GR. Identification of a putative regulator of early T cell activation genes. J Immunol. 2010;185(9):4972–4975. (Pillars Article; reprinted from Science 1988;241:202–205.)
  63. Lessard JA, Crabtree GR. Chromatin regulatory mechanisms in pluripotency. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol. 2010;26:503–532. doi:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-051809-102012. (Review)
  64. Ho L, Crabtree GR. Chromatin remodelling during development. Nature. 2010;463(7280):474–484. doi:10.1038/nature08911. (Review)
  65. Crabtree GR, Schreiber SL. SnapShot: Ca²⁺–calcineurin–NFAT signaling. Cell. 2009;138(1):210. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2009.06.026.
  66. Yoo AS, Staahl BT, Chen L, Crabtree GR. MicroRNA-mediated switching of chromatin-remodelling complexes in neural development. Nature. 2009;460(7255):642–646. doi:10.1038/nature08139.
  67. Yoo AS, Crabtree GR. ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling in neural development. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2009;19(2):120–126. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2009.04.006. (Review)
  68. Ho L, Ronan JL, Wu J, Staahl BT, Chen L, Kuo A, Lessard J, Nesvizhskii AI, Ranish J, Crabtree GR. An embryonic stem cell chromatin remodeling complex, esBAF, is essential for embryonic stem cell self-renewal and pluripotency. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009;106(13):5181–5186. doi:10.1073/pnas.0812889106.
  69. Ho L, Jothi R, Ronan JL, Cui K, Zhao K, Crabtree GR. An embryonic stem cell chromatin remodeling complex, esBAF, is an essential component of the core pluripotency transcriptional network. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009;106(13):5187–5191. doi:10.1073/pnas.0812888106.
  70. Kao SC, Wu H, Xie J, Chang CP, Ranish JA, Graef IA, Crabtree GR. Calcineurin/NFAT signaling is required for neuregulin-regulated Schwann cell differentiation. Science. 2009;323(5914):651–654. doi:10.1126/science.1166562.
  71. Lazarevic V, Zullo AJ, Schweitzer MN, Staton TL, Gallo EM, Crabtree GR, Glimcher LH. The gene encoding early growth response 2, a target of the transcription factor NFAT, is required for the development and maturation of natural killer T cells. Nat Immunol. 2009;10(3):306–313. doi:10.1038/ni.1696.
  72. Wu JI, Lessard J, Crabtree GR. Understanding the words of chromatin regulation. Cell. 2009;136(2):200–206. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2009.01.009.