Decoding transcriptional regulation

In higher eukaryotes, genes are expressed dynamically in complex spatial and temporal patterns, which are progressively refined to set up body plans and define specific cell-types. The information about when and where each gene is to be expressed is encoded in the sequences of promoter-, enhancer- and silencer regions and realized by transcription factor and cofactor proteins.

I am presenting our work towards understanding the how this regulatory information is sequence-encoded and how cells utilize this information with transcription factor and cofactor proteins. We characterize regulatory sequences by functional screens in Drosophila S2 cells and by a genome-scale candidate testing approach in developing Drosophila embryos. We then use deep-learning approaches to model the sequence-to-function relationship for enhancers and build synthetic enhancers de novo. We also employ motif analysis and mutagenesis, biochemistry and mass spectrometry as well as transcriptome-measurements to dissect functions and mechanisms of regulatory elements, including silencers.