Three-dimensional chromatin organization plays a major role in metazoan gene regulation. However, the dynamic nature of genomic architecture across cell types and its effect on lineage commitment is still not fully understood. In collaboration with other groups at Babraham Institute and beyond, we are using Promoter-Capture Hi-C to identify distal sequences interacting with ~22,000 promoters in human cells globally and at high resolution.
My talk will focus on two projects:
(1) the analysis of interactome rewiring upon human ES cell commitment and
(2) the profiling of promoter interactions in 17 primary haemopoietic cell types and using this information for linking common disease variants with putative target genes and pathways.
Taken together, the results of these projects highlight the power of high-resolution interactome profiling for gaining insights into both global gene regulatory principles and the mechanisms underlying specific disease pathologies.