Decoding transcriptional regulation

Speaker: Professor Alexander Stark from Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna Biocenter
Series: Genetics Seminar
Note: Host - Maciek Zurowski
Also open online: the joining details are on the talk's page.

In higher eukaryotes, genes are expressed dynamically in complex spatial and temporal patterns, which are progressively refined to set up body plans and define specific cell-types. The information about when and where each gene is to be expressed is encoded in the sequences of promoter-, enhancer- and silencer regions and realized by transcription factor and cofactor proteins. I am presenting our work towards understanding the how this regulatory information is sequence-encoded and how cells utilize this information with transcription factor and cofactor proteins. We characterize regulatory sequences by functional screens in cell lines, by a genome-scale candidate testing approach in developing Drosophila embryos, and by analyzing mouse enhancer-activity tests from the VISTA database. We use deep-learning approaches to model the sequenceto-function relationship for enhancers and build synthetic enhancers de novo. We also employ functional screens, motif analysis and mutagenesis, biochemistry and mass spectrometry to dissect functions and mechanisms of regulatory elements and transcription in flies and mammals.