Lectures and seminars Seminar - Judith B Zaugg (EMBL)

Gene regulatory networks to investigate bone marrow niche ageing and its role in leukemia

Judith B Zaugg

European Molecular Biology Laboratory Heidelberg

Phenotypic variation (including disease) across individuals has two main sources: genetic variation, and variation in environmental exposures. In the past decades the field made tremendous advances in mapping common genetic variants to complex traits and diseases. Yet, the majority of these disease-associated variants lie in the non-coding part of the genome, which makes is very difficult to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms. For the environmental impact on complex phenotypes, we still know very little, yet epigenetics may play a significant role. Our vision is to mechanistically understand how non-coding genetic variants affect gene regulation, how they interplay with epigenetic processes (e.g. in ageing or disease), and how this interplay impacts cellular signaling and cell-cell interactions. In this talk I will present our most recent work on cell-type specific and enhancer-mediated regulatory networks that integrate environmental signaling with genetic and epigenetic variation. I will show two applications of our predictive models revolving around the aging bone marrow niche and the immune system. Overall, our integrative approach with a focus on gene regulation provides a powerful tool to gain mechanistic insights into complex biological processes.