Asst Prof @UCIrvine. Genetics, Genomics, Gene Regulation, Development. Training: Postdoc @BerkeleyLab and PhD @IMPvienna. Views are my own.
May 27 • 19 tweets • 7 min read
How do enhancers work over distances that sometimes exceed megabases? Excited to share our work led by @gracecbower where we uncover a unique sequence signature globally associated with long-range enhancer-promoter interactions in developing limb buds: 1/ biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
We also describe a prototypical element containing this signature called Range EXtender (REX) that is necessary and sufficient to confer extreme-distance gene activation by enhancers. 2/
Nov 20, 2022 • 15 tweets • 7 min read
How important is Enhancer—Promoter physical proximity for developmental gene activation? Happy to share our work led by postdoc Zhuoxin Chen @Czx17943830 where we systematically address this question in vivo. (1/n) biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
Enhancers are thought to interact with their promoters via physical proximity, yet the importance of this proximity for enhancer function remains unclear. Some E-P loops are cell-type-specific, others are stable or even display reduced proximity upon activation. (2/n)
Thread👇 (1/12)
A major challenge in human genomics is how to systematically assess the phenotypic impact of enhancer variants identified in human genetics studies. Mouse transgenics is a powerful tool for this purpose but has limited throughput, high cost, and so-called position effects (2/12)