Our Goal

Packing two meters of DNA inside ten-micron nuclei creates a very crowded environment. This is an extraordinary feat of compaction and organization because cellular processes such as replication, transcription, and DNA repair must occur within such a dense setting. We have all seen how electric cables become invariably entangled and non-functional inside our drawers. Cells face the same problems, and therefore developed mechanisms that organize the physical structure of the genome and ensure its regulation and integrity. Our lab studies how the mechanisms that fold and compact the genome, help ensure precise spatial-temporal activation of gene expression. Our goal is to understand the regulatory mechanisms that ensure accurate specification of the first mammalian cell types, which are essential to support healthy pregnancies.

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