05 March, 2026
The Fischle lab proudly announces the graduation of the PhD candidate at KAUST, Dr. Karthik Eswara.
Karthik joined Prof. Fischle’s laboratory in 2021 as a PhD student in the Bioscience program. His doctoral research aimed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying heterochromatin condensation and segregation mediated by HP1 proteins in C. elegans. Specifically, he investigated the relative contributions of dimerization and phase separation of HPL-2, the C. elegans HP1 ortholog, to H3K9me2/3-dependent chromatin condensation, both in vitro and in C. elegans embryos. His findings suggest that HPL-2 dimerization, rather than phase separation, is the primary driver of heterochromatin condensation. Well done, Dr. Karthik Eswara!
Following his PhD at KAUST, Karthik will join Prof. Peter Meister’s laboratory at the University of Bern, Switzerland, as a postdoctoral fellow. There, he will further explore 3D genome organization in C. elegans, with a particular focus on the role of cohesin complexes in transcriptional regulation and the consequences of their dysfunction in the development of cohesinopathies.