Functional Genomics

The central research aim in our group is to understand how genome activity is regulated and how it contributes to human disease. For this, we search for and identify distal acting cis-regulatory sequences, and study how they act on their target genes and how these are organized in the 3D structure of the chromatin and in gene regulatory networks underlying a specific biological state. We do so by using a combination of bioinformatics, structural genomics, genome-wide analysis, CRISPR genome editing, and functional assays in transgenic animal models and in stem cells.

We are applying this approach to the study of three basic questions:

• How are lineage decisions taken, starting from the pluripotent state, that result in the specification of different cell types?
• What is the contribution of regulatory variation to the normal and diseased cardiovascular system?
• Which are the genomic and epigenomic changes that occur during cardiovascular disease progression and chronification?