www.frankjacobslab.comThe impact of recent genomic changes on the evolution of human gene-regulatory networks;This is the main research interest in my group. In particular, how has the evolution of the human genome shaped gene regulatory networks involved in human embryonic brain development.Genomic changes can be small, such as retrotransposon insertions, or big, such as segmental duplications of whole segments of the genome. Genomic modifications happened frequently during primate evolution, but the extent to which individual evolutionary genomic events accounted for changes in gene expression and contributed to the evolution of species remains unclear. In previous work (Jacobs et al., 2014; Nature) we show how KRAB zinc finger genes in our genome are in a continuous battle against retrotransposon invasions, revealing how our genome is actually in a war against itself.http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13760.htmlAs a result of this evolutionary armsrace, both retrotransposons and KRAB zinc finger genes become heavily integrated in pre-existing gene regulation pathways which adds an extra level of complexity to how, where and when genes in our genome are shut on or off.My lab investigates how this extra layer of retrotransposon-mediated gene control has led to a re-shaping of gene regulatory networks involved in human brain development. My research aims to pinpoint how specific genomic changes may have contributed to the evolutionary increase in size and complexity of the human neocortex and understand how these changes may relate to human's increased susceptibility to neurological diseases.To study primate genome evolution in the context of brain development, we are using human and primate stem cell lines as a source for cortical neurons. This model system allows us to investigate the functionality of genomic novelties in the context of the development and evolution of the human neocortex.