Our lab’s field of research is genome organization, how it responds to stress, and how it may impact cell fate decisions through regulating gene expression. Our overarching goal is to engineer genome circuits that leverage on external or internal stimuli, restructure the 3D genome (with no or minimal impact to the sequence), and dictate cellular states.
To that end we are using a variety of cutting-edge imaging technologies, molecular genetics, and computational approaches. Through integration of genome-wide population-level approaches, single-cell technologies, and polymer modeling, we are investigating how genome organization drives, or is driven by, nuclear functions.
Super-resolution imaging of 8 Mbp segment of human chromosome 19 in fibroblasts Adapted from [Nussinov, Jang, Nir, Tsai and Cheng, Signal Transduct. Target. Ther. (2021). A. Nanoscale Imaging of 9 chromosomal segments with sequential OligoSTORM. B. Transcriptionally active chromosomal segments are spatially segregated from inactive (blue – inactive, red – active). What structural changes occur at the boundaries across cell types, when transcriptional activity switches? Can structure predict which genes are more likely to switch?
*Disclaimer – This disclaimer informs readers that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author (Dr. Guy Nir), and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.
Nice work guy NIR!