We are interested in mechanistically deciphering how genetic variation increase the risk of human diseases. We are particularly interested in understanding how noncoding genetic variants, most uncovered by Genome-wide Association Studies are associated with disease etiology. The underlying assumption is that a majority of these variants impart their effects by altering the quantitative, temporal, and/or spatial properties of long-range cis-regulatory enhancers. Several challenges hinder the mechanistically follow-up of these GWAS, including 1) identification of the causal variant(s) associated with the disease trait, 2) characterization of the spatial and temporal properties of the enhancer(s) harboring the causal variant(s), 3) establishing differential regulatory properties of the allelic variants of the enhancer(s), 4) identification of the causal gene(s) connected with the enhancer(s) of interest, and 5) characterization of the molecular, cellular, and systems-level phenotypes associated with mis-regulation of the target gene(s). Our lab has been developing pipelines to tackle all these challenges, resulting in integrated experimental and computational strategies to uncover the mechanisms linking regulatory variants to human disease.
Marcelo A. Nobrega, MD PhD
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A.N. Pritzker Professor of Human Genetics
Committee on Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology
Associate Dean for Faculty, Basic Science - Websites: Research Network Profile
- Contact: nobrega@uchicago.edu
- Graduate Programs: Genetics, Genomics & Systems Biology, Human Genetics, UChicago Biosciences