Charlotte Dubois

Université Paris-Saclay / Epigenetics

Advisor: Prof. Edith Moreau

Charlotte Dubois maps the epigenetic landscape of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) — an oxidative derivative of 5-methylcytosine that is especially enriched in brain tissue — across the stepwise differentiation trajectory from human induced pluripotent stem cells to mature cortical neurons. At Université Paris-Saclay's I2BC institute, supervised by Prof. Edith Moreau, she exploits Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing's unique ability to directly detect 5hmC modifications without chemical conversion, enabling haplotype-resolved epigenetic profiling at single-molecule resolution for the first time in human neurogenesis. Her analysis of 14 differentiation time-points has revealed a wave of 5hmC accumulation at enhancers of genes encoding synaptic scaffold proteins between days 21 and 35 of differentiation — a previously unrecognised epigenetic checkpoint whose disruption she links to improper dendritic morphology in neurodevelopmental disorder iPSC lines. Charlotte has developed a Snakemake bioinformatics pipeline for joint calling of 5mC, 5hmC, and chromatin accessibility, which she has deposited as open-source software used by three other labs. Her completed industry internship at Illumina France and active applications to genomics CRO positions signal her readiness to translate this expertise.