Research

Our genomes are highly regulated and their expression is able to respond to a variety of environmental cues. For example, during development gene expression programs drive generation of thousands of cell types in our bodies from a small population of pluripotent cells.

GOALS

The key enzyme that transcribes eukaryotic genomes and that gives rise to all mRNAs and many non-coding RNAs is RNA polymerase II. My research aims to understand the key mechanisms that underlie the regulation of nascent RNA polymerase II transcription and I want to focus on the post-initiation regulatory events role of RNAPII elongation rate control. Specifically, we aim to describe mechanisms of RNAPII elongation control in development and how dysregulation of nascent transcription leads to human disease. We are also interested in how RNAPII transcription cross-talks to other processes occurring on DNA.

TOOLS

We are tackling these problems by a combination of high-resolution genome-wide approaches, genome editting techniques and bioinformatics tools.