I am an Associate professor at the Department of EECS and a member of the Center for Computational Biology at UC Berkeley.
The broad goals of the research in my group are to understand how transcription is regulated in immune cells and how changes in transcription affect cell- and tissue-level phenotypes. Beyond a basic scientific drive to study these fundamental questions, we are motivated by the translational potential of identifying and modulating the causes of transcriptional shifts. Our contribution to this wide area of research is in developing and applying computational tools (algorithms, software) to design, integrate and interpret large molecular data sets that can teach us about the regulation and the downstream effects of the transcriptional process.
The group currently focuses on two related areas of research. One area of interest is to model and interpret the effects of heterogeneity between immune cells based on single- cell genomics, with a focus on mRNA profiling. Another area is exploring regulatory factors that govern cell state transitions based on large-scale chromatin profiling assays and massively parallel reporter assays. We pursue these areas primarily in the context of immune cells, covering various aspects of their biology, such as their differentiation, stability/ plasticity, and response to acute stimulation.
Check out the publications page for a more complete survey of our research.
