Soumen Paul, Ph.D.

Professional Background

Dr. Paul is a Professor and the Director of the Graduate Program at the Department of Pathology andamp; Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Paul is also the Director of Center for Perinatal Research within the Institute for Reproduction and Perinatal Research at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. Paul completed his Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology andamp; Genetics from the University of Calcutta, India. Afterwards, He joined as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics of University of Kalyani, India. In Kalyani, he taught Immunology and Molecular Biology course to the M.Sc. students. He became interested in hematopoietic and vascular development and in December 2002 he joined Dr. Emery Bresnick's group at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
On May 1^st, 2007, Dr. Paul joined the University of Kansas Medical Center as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to a Tenured Professor in 2018. Since 2010, Dr. Paul is also directing the graduate program of the Department of Pathology andamp; Laboratory Medicine. Since October 2020, Dr. Paul is also directing the Center for Perinatal Research. Dr. Paul is an expert in stem cell biology and a leader in trophoblast stem cell biology. Dr. Paul’s laboratory made fundamental discoveries about transcriptional mechanisms that regulate the genesis of Trophectoderm during early embryonic development, as well as molecular mechanisms controlling self-renewal, differentiation, and function of trophoblast stem/progenitors cells during mammalian placentation.

• PhD, Univ. of Calcutta

Research

Overview

We are asking how transcriptional mechanisms that involve transcription factors/cofactors, distinct epigenetic marks, and other chromatin-associated factors regulate chromatin structure and thereby regulate gene expression during mammalian development.

AREAS OF RESEARCH IN PAUL LABORATORY
One of our research interests is to define molecular processes that control the genesis of early cell lineages, their self-renewal, differentiation, and function. The first lineage decision during mammalian development is the establishment of Trophectoderm (TE) and and inner cell mass (ICM) lineages. These differentiation events begin during pre-implanation development when blastomeres are fated towards TE and ICM. TE develops into parts of the placenta, while the ICM forms embryonic and some extra-embryonic structures. To understand this early lineage commitment, we are using embryonic stem (ES) and trophoblast stem (TS) cells as model system. We are also studying molecular mechanisms that control development of trophoblast lineage in postimplantation embryos. We are using transgenic mouse models as well human TSCs and human placentas to test our hypotheses.

Another area of our research interest is to dissect mechanisms to understand the molecular regulation of blood and blood vessel formation (Hematopoiesis and Angiogenesis).