An ambitious EC-funded research initiative on epigenetics advancing towards systems biology

The Stunnenberg team aims at unraveling the molecular basis of development and differentiation emanating from the genome and epigenome in the context of health and disease. State-of-the-art technological developments are applied ranging from single molecule studies through to genome wide elucidation of genetic and epigenetic pathways and mechanisms. Next Generation Sequencing platforms are routinely used to analyze transcription factor binding sites, 3D structure, epigenetic marks, DNA-methylation and RNA transcriptomes at a comprehensive genome wide scale. In depths analysis of the genome wide data is performed by our own bioinformatic team as well as with outside collaborators. The group participates in a number of international consortia tackling pathways and molecular mechanisms in lineage commitment of (embryonic) stem cells and pluripotency, cancer and method development. Stunnenberg is coordinator of the FP7 project BLUEPRINT, which aims at generating at least 100 reference epigenomes and studying them to advance and exploit knowledge of the underlying biological processes and mechanisms in health and disease.