Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics Lab

 

Epigenetics and Gene regulation, Protein engineering, Photochemical approaches towards understanding epigenetic mechanisms in human biology and disease

 

Chemical Biology, Expansion of the genetic code: Genetic incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins in live cells and their applications

 

The research in my laboratory focuses on following areas of epigenetic mechanisms that are at best partially understood: (i) reversal of DNA methylation (ii) epigenetic readers and erasers of histone acetylation. Dysregulation in above-mentioned processes can cause chromosomal instability, and eventually lead to multiple disorders including cancer and neurological diseases. Molecular rationale linking these epigenetic events to disease states is lacking. For example, how mutations in various gene products in these pathways play role in tumorigenesis, tumor progression and metastasis is not completely clear. To address these questions, we take a multidisciplinary approach that integrate protein engineering, unnatural amino acid mutagenesis, mechanistic biochemistry, mammalian cell culture system, proteomics and bioinformatics to interrogate cellular machineries towards molecular understanding of epigenetic mechanisms in human health and disease.