Vanessa Junco Ruisánchez

Dr. Vanessa Junco Ruisánchez

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Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

1Year (2026-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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8 April 2026 in Biomolecules
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
LGLorena García-Gaipo
Lorena García-Gaipo
VRVanessa Junco Ruisánchez
Vanessa Junco Ruisánchez
LGLucia Garcia Gutierrez
Lucia Garcia Gutierrez
VTVerónica Torrano
Verónica Torrano
RBRosa Blanco
Rosa Blanco
MDM.Dolores Delgado
M.Dolores Delgado
Erythropoiesis is tightly regulated by lineage-specific transcription factors that govern erythroid commitment, proliferation, and differentiation. A core erythroid transcriptional network, together with non-DNA-binding cofactors, occupies regulatory regions of genes essential for erythroid development. This process is further shaped by epigenetic mechanisms, including histone post-translational modifications and long-range chromatin interactions. CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) is a multifunctional regulator with a central role in three-dimensional chromatin organization. Although CTCF has been implicated in hematopoietic differentiation and leukemogenesis, its specific function in erythropoiesis remains poorly defined. Here, we investigated the role of CTCF during erythroid differentiation using two complementary models: pluripotent K562 leukemia cells and primary human CD34+ hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, each induced toward the erythroid lineage by distinct stimuli. In both systems, CTCF silencing impaired erythroid differentiation by repression of key erythroid transcription factor genes, including LMO2, KLF1, MYB, and ETS1. This repression was associated with enrichment of repressive histone marks at CTCF-binding sites within their regulatory regions. Moreover, CTCF cooperated with cohesin to establish and stabilize long-range chromatin interactions at these loci. These results provide new insight into how CTCF-dependent chromatin regulation contributes to normal erythroid development and suggest that perturbation of this regulatory axis may have implications for hematopoietic disorders and malignancies.