Eiríkur Steingrímsson

Short Bio

1985, BS, University of Iceland.
1992, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
1993 -1997, Postdoctoral research at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland.
1997 - present, Professor at the University of Iceland, Faculty of Medicine.

The color of our eyes, skin and hair is determined by special cells called melanocytes. They originate in the neural crest as undifferentiated melanoblasts and migrate to their destination in the skin, eye, hairbulb and other regions of the body. In the hairbulb, the melanoblasts reach a split road. One leads to the matrix of the hair where they end up as pigment-producing melanocytes. The other leads to the bulge-region where they become melanocyte stem cells. As the hair undergoes cycles of hair renewal, the stem cells are ready to replenish the melanocyte population making sure that the new hair is correctly pigmented. When they have reached their final destination, melanocytes produce the pigment melanin which is deposited into cellular organelles called melanosomes. These organelles are delivered to neighboring cells, shielding their DNA from UV-irradiation by forming a protective cap over the nucleus.

The transcription factor MITF has been shown to be essential for all steps in melanocyte development and differentiation, including stem cell maintenance. It has thus been termed the master regulator of melanocytes. MITF has also been shown to be important in melanoma, a deadly type of skin cancer, formed from melanocytes. In melanoma, MITF is a key regulator mediating a switch between multiplying tumor cells and dormant migrating cells. How this single transcription factor can mediate multiple events during melanocyte development on one hand and melanomagenesis on the other hand, is a critical question. How this master regulator is controlled and which signalling processes regulate its expression and activity are the major questions that the members of the laboratory are trying to answer.

MITF has a central role in melanoma, melanocyte development and pigmentation. It is crucial, therefore, to fully understand its range of target genes at different stages of development, how it is regulated by signaling pathways, how this affects structure, stability, subcellular localization and interacting proteins and how this mediates the multiple roles of MITF in the cell. The easily visible, yet non-lethal phenotype of Mitf mutations in mice makes this gene ideal for structure-function studies. We believe that performing parallele studies in vivo and in vitro provides a unique opportunity to study the structure function relationship of a transcription factor both in development and disease and may lead into insights into how to target this disease. 

We are always looking for talented, energetic people to join our lab. Feel free to contact me at eirikurs@hi.is.

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