Dixon Lab

Understanding how our genomes encode information is an extraordinary challenge for scientists today.  At the heart of this is the challenge of understanding how our genomes establish and maintain cellular patterns of gene expression.  While a variety of cellular processes contribute to gene regulation, our work has suggested that how our genomes are organized in 3-dimensional space inside of the nucleus plays a critical role for proper gene regulation.  Our lab uses both molecular and computational biology approaches to study this problem.  We rely on novel genomics tools to study higher order chromatin structure to better understand how gene expression programs are regulated. We focus on understanding the fundamental molecular mechanisms that govern 3D genome structure and how 3D genome structure controls gene regulation. Further, we are involved in the ongoing development of novel technologies, including computational and single cell methods, for studying 3D genome architecture. Finally, a key aspect of our work is to understand how sequence variation, in particular mutations in cancer genomes, alters 3D genome organization and contributes to human disease.