Disentangling protein-chromatin interactions at a genome-wide scale.

Abstract

Multicellular organisms have evolved sophisticated networks to regulate gene expression through chemical modifications on chromatin. This layer of epigenetic regulation has to be precisely controlled and interpreted in order to orchestrate correct execution of gene expression programs. While the genome-wide distribution of chromatin modifications has been explored to a great detail, the current challenge remains to understand how these patterns are regulated along the genome and how these contribute to cell-type-specific gene regulation.

Our research tackles this challenge though synergising multiple strategies, including functional genomics and synthetic biology to uncover the underlying regulatory principles in living cells. Currently, our work aims to uncover the mechanisms that regulate the establishment of DNA methylation patterns in healthy and diseased cells, and to dissect how specialised reader domains interpret the complex chemical language of modifications on chromatin.