Medical and Regulatory Genomics

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The genes embedded in your genome have complex patterns of activity and particular constellations of genes must be active in particular cells and at particular times for biological processes, such as embryonic development, to conclude successfully. Our group is interested in the fundamental biology of gene regulation: when, how and why genes are turned on and off. We advance understand of the mechanisms underlying gene regulation, using computational analyses of datasets measuring the activities of many thousands of genes. This can provide new insights into human evolution itself, and also helps us to interpret disease processes with disrupted regulation, such as cancers and developmental disorders. Human genomes vary at millions of DNA sites between individuals, but often we do not know which variants matter most to our biology. Ultimately we want to develop predictive models, based upon our knowledge of gene regulation, that help us to forecast the effects of variants in health and disease.