Description:

Monthly Seminar on Physical Genomics - Gene Structure Heterogeneity and Loop Extrusion Drive Transcriptional Noise in Human Cells

Friday, August 25th @ 12pm (Central U.S. Time)  Register for the Live Zoom: https://tinyurl.com/mutnptcx

Nick Gilbert, PhD, Professor of Chromatin Biology, Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit at the University of Edinburgh 

Transcriptional noise, or heterogeneity, provides phenotypic variation within a cell population, but the molecular basis for this phenomenon is unclear. In this study we use computer simulations based on biophysical principles of genome organisation to simultaneously predict 3D structure and transcriptional output of human chromatin genome-wide. Exploration of this dataset shows that genes can adopt different 3D structures, while influential nodes within a locus control structural diversity and are linked to gene function. Furthermore, structural snapshots from within simulations show that transcription strongly correlates with the formation of protein-mediated microphase separated clusters of promoters and enhancers, and concomitantly transcriptional noise is determined by gene structure heterogeneity and loop extrusion. 

About Prof. Nick Gilbert

Nick is a group leader at the MRC Human Genetics Unit and is Director of Graduate Research for the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine. He started his career as a PhD student in the biochemistry department at Edinburgh University, before doing a postdoc with Wendy Bickmore. Nick started his lab in the Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre in 2006 with a fellowship from the Wellcome Trust and moved to the Human Genetics Unit in 2012, after obtaining an MRC Senior Fellowship.