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

Main interests Of the Computational Epigenomics unit at the Center for Genomic Sciences of IIT@SEMM are the development of computational methods for (1) deciphering the interplay between epigenetic layers, and for (2) the analysis of high-°©‐throughput epigenomics data.

(1) On one hand, we plan to use high-°©‐throughput public datasets to identify regulatory modules that are disrupted in cancer, based on the transcriptional and epigenetic dynamics of transcription factors (TFs) and their target genes in healthy and cancer samples. On the other hand, we are designing perturbation experiments to dissect the interplay between epigenetics layers, TFs binding and the resulting transcriptional programs, and how this cross-°©‐talk is altered in cancer.

(2) We are developing methods for the analysis of high-°©‐throughput sequencing epigenomics data. To this purpose, we are particularly interested in the analysis of DNA-°©‐methylation and in the analysis of chromatin states in time-°©‐course experiments.

The group, as seen in the photo from left to right, is currently composed of:

• Stefano de Pretis (Postdoc),
• Mattia Pelizzola (PI),
• Alberto Ronchi (PhD student)
• Kamal Kishore (PhD student).