Structural cell biology
Our laboratory studies the role of the spatial genome organization in the regulation of gene expression, activation of developmental programs and cell differentiation. One of our goals is to unite genomics with microscopy data to acquire a more complete insight about the basic principles governing chromosome folding and the partition of genomic regions relative to nuclear bodies. A second line of research focuses on the development of methods for mapping the spatial arrangement of the proteome in cell cytoplasm at molecular resolution to gain insights into the molecular organization of subcellular compartments, and their dynamic changes during regulation of cellular processes.
Our research aims to expand the scope of structural biology from the molecular functions of the isolated macromolecular assemblies to the concerted roles that such assemblies play in their cellular context. Our laboratory contributes to this effort in several ways.
Research Areas:
3D structure analysis of genomes
Genome structure-function correlations
Visual Proteomics
Image analysis in cryo electron tomography and cryo electron microscopy
Structure determination of macromolecular assemblies
Reaction-diffusion modeling of cellular processes