Research
We study genome structure and epigenetic regulation across species and cell types.
We investigate how genomic and epigenomic variation relates to human evolution, aging, and neurological disorders. Our work combines comparative genomics with statistical modeling, machine learning, and bioinformatics method development to resolve complex genomic regions and identify regulatory patterns in large-scale data.
Questions we ask
Questions that connect our work across biological systems and data types.
- How do complex genomic regions vary among individuals and species?
- How has gene regulation changed during human evolution?
- How does cell-type-specific regulation change with aging and disease?
- How can we distinguish biological variation from reference, annotation, and technical effects?
Genome architecture
Resolving the most complex regions of the genome
We study segmental duplications, copy-number variation, and other structurally complex loci using long-read and complete genome assemblies. These regions provide a view into recent human variation, primate evolution, and the emergence of new gene functions.
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Regulatory evolution
Tracing changes in gene regulation across species
We compare cell-type-resolved epigenomic data from humans and non-human primates to identify lineage-specific regulatory changes and examine their relationships with gene expression, neurodevelopment, and disease risk.
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Aging and disease
Understanding how cell identity changes with age
We analyze cell-resolved genomic and epigenomic data to determine how regulatory programs change with aging, disease, and failed tissue repair. Current work spans the brain, kidney, and comparative models of human biology.
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We welcome researchers interested in genomics, evolution, aging, and disease.
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