My
research is focused on analysis of epigenetic modifications
on a genome-wide scale. Chromatin is known to play key
roles in both long-term gene and chromosomal silencing
(heterochromatin) as well as dynamic transcriptional
regulation in a number of biological processes (euchromatin).
My aims include the development of an assay to examine
in vivo chromatin structure of whole genomes. Chemical
and enzymatic methods will be used to probe chromatin
structure on a genome-wide basis, and high molecular
weight DNA will be isolated, mounted and indexed for
Optical Mapping (a system developed in the Laboratory
of Molecular and Computational Genomics for genomic
analysis on a single molecule basis). Initial studies
will focus on assaying chromatin association states
at several well-known loci – both active and repressed
- in the context of a whole-genome analysis performed
on a single molecule basis.
