My graduate research focused on understanding how genomic and physical distance affects enhancer-promoter communication in mouse ESCs. Enhancers (DNA sequences that recruit transcriptional activators) occur at finite locations in the genome making systematic analysis of enhancer-promoter distance a challenge. We bypass these positional constraints by recruiting transcriptional activators directly to arbitrary genomic sites. We do this using CARGO-VPR, a technique to target a ~250bp genomic window with multiple molecules of catalytically dead Cas9 fused to the strong synthetic activator, VPR. This approach allows us to vary genomic distance systematically and study the affects on gene expression. Read more in our recently published manuscript: https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/fulltext/S1097-2765(24)00861-X

In the Conklin lab, I modeled dilated cardiomyopathy using iPS-derived cardiomyocytes.