Julian Pulecio, PhD

Sr. Research Scientist
The Danwei Huangfu Lab
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Julian Pulecio, PhD

Sr. Research Scientist
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Julian Pulecio, PhD

Sr. Research Scientist

Mentor

Danwei Huangfu, PhD

Education

PhD, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology [ICGEB]

Julián Pulecio obtained his degree in Biology from the National University of Colombia in 2005. Then, he joined the Molecular Immunology Team at the ICGEB (Trieste, Italy), where he carried out his PhD project under the supervision of Dr. Oscar Burrone & Dr. Federica Benvenuti. There, he studied the role of WASp protein (which causes Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome) in dendritic cells. In particular he studied its role on migration mechanisms, antigen presentation and activation of T-lymphocytes. In 2009, he obtained his PhD in Molecular Biology at the Scuola Normale Superior of Pisa.
In 2010, he moved to the Center for Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona (CMRB) to study alternative protocols to produce blood and endothelial progenitors based on direct cellular reprogramming processes. During his postdoctoral stage at the CMRB he participated in several published studies that reported the discovery of new strategies to generate endothelial and blood progenitors in vitro, through trans-differentiation of human fibroblasts and directed differentiation of human induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSCs). 

Publications

CRISPR screening uncovers a central requirement for HHEX in pancreatic lineage commitment and plasticity restriction. Yang D, Cho H, Tayyebi Z, Shukla A, Luo R, Dixon G, Ursu V, Stransky S, Tremmel DM, Sackett SD, Koche R, Kaplan SJ, Li QV, Park J, Zhu Z, Rosen BP, Pulecio J, Shi ZD, Bram Y, Schwartz RE, Odorico JS, Sidoli S, Wright CV, Leslie CS, Huangfu D. Nat Cell Biol. 2022 Jul;24(7):1064-1076. doi: 10.1038/s41556-022-00946-4. [PMID: 35787684]

QSER1 protects DNA methylation valleys from de novo methylation. Dixon G, Pan H, Yang D, Rosen BP, Jashari T, Verma N, Pulecio J, Caspi I, Lee K, Stransky S, Glezer A, Liu C, Rivas M, Kumar R, Lan Y, Torregroza I, He C, Sidoli S, Evans T, Elemento O, Huangfu D. Science. 2021 Apr 9;372(6538):eabd0875. doi: 10.1126/science.abd0875. PMID: 33833093

FOXA2 Is Required for Enhancer Priming during Pancreatic Differentiation. Lee K, Cho H, Rickert RW, Li QV, Pulecio J, Leslie CS, Huangfu D. Cell Rep. 2019 Jul 9;28(2):382-393.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.06.034. PMID: 31291575

CRISPR/Cas9-Based Engineering of the Epigenome. Pulecio J, Verma N, Mejía-Ramírez E, Huangfu D, Raya A. Cell Stem Cell. 2017 Oct 5;21(4):431-447. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2017.09.006. PMID: 28985525 

Direct Conversion of Fibroblasts to Megakaryocyte Progenitors. Pulecio J, Alejo-Valle O, Capellera-Garcia S, Vitaloni M, Rio P, Mejía-Ramírez E, Caserta I, Bueren JA, Flygare J, Raya A. Cell Rep. 2016 Oct 11;17(3):671-683. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.09.036. PMID: 27732845

Defining the Minimal Factors Required for Erythropoiesis through Direct Lineage Conversion. Capellera-Garcia S, Pulecio J, Dhulipala K, Siva K, Rayon-Estrada V, Singbrant S, Sommarin MN, Walkley CR, Soneji S, Karlsson G, Raya Á, Sankaran VG, Flygare J. Cell Rep. 2016 Jun 14;15(11):2550-62. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.05.027. Epub 2016 Jun 2. PMID: 27264182

Update on the Pathogenic Implications and Clinical Potential of microRNAs in Cardiac Disease. Notari M, Pulecio J, Raya Á. Biomed Res Int. 2015;2015:105620. doi: 10.1155/2015/105620. Epub 2015 Jun 28. Review. PMID: 26221581

Conversion of human fibroblasts into monocyte-like progenitor cells. Pulecio J, Nivet E, Sancho-Martinez I, Vitaloni M, Guenechea G, Xia Y, Kurian L, Dubova I, Bueren J, Laricchia-Robbio L, Izpisua Belmonte JC. Stem Cells. 2014 Nov;32(11):2923-38. doi: 10.1002/stem.1800. PMID: 25175072

MicroRNAs contribute to induced pluripotent stem cell somatic donor memory. Vitaloni M, Pulecio J, Bilic J, Kuebler B, Laricchia-Robbio L, Izpisua Belmonte JC. J Biol Chem. 2014 Jan 24;289(4):2084-98. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M113.538702. Epub 2013 Dec 5. PMID: 24311783

Conversion of human fibroblasts to angioblast-like progenitor cells. Kurian L, Sancho-Martinez I, Nivet E, Aguirre A, Moon K, Pendaries C, Volle-Challier C, Bono F, Herbert JM, Pulecio J, Xia Y, Li M, Montserrat N, Ruiz S, Dubova I, Rodriguez C, Denli AM, Boscolo FS, Thiagarajan RD, Gage FH, Loring JF, Laurent LC, Izpisua Belmonte JC. Nat Methods. 2013 Jan;10(1):77-83. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2255. Epub 2012 Dec 2. PMID: 23202434

Cdc42-mediated MTOC polarization in dendritic cells controls targeted delivery of cytokines at the immune synapse. Pulecio J, Petrovic J, Prete F, Chiaruttini G, Lennon-Dumenil AM, Desdouets C, Gasman S, Burrone OR, Benvenuti F. J Exp Med. 2010 Nov 22;207(12):2719-32. doi: 10.1084/jem.20100007. Epub 2010 Nov 8. PMID: 21059854

Expression of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein in dendritic cells regulates synapse formation and activation of naive CD8+ T cells. Pulecio J, Tagliani E, Scholer A, Prete F, Fetler L, Burrone OR, Benvenuti F. J Immunol. 2008 Jul 15;181(2):1135-42. PMID: 18606666