Developing New Protocols & Applications in Computational Epigenetics
Supervisor
Suitable for
Abstract
Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence. Epigenetic marks could include DNA modification and have been associated with cancer and a number of cardiovascular disease risk factors. We aim to develop novel computational procedures to predict how DNA structure and higher-level DNA packing in chromatin (http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/dna-packaging-nucleosomes-and-chromatin-310) depends on sequence and on epigenetic effects such as DNA methylation. Given, that nucleoside analogue epigenetic drugs, which simply replace certain nucleotides in the DNA sequence, can be viewed as synthetic epigenetic marks, applications may include the design of new epigenetic drugs.
Prerequisites: the project can be tailored to suit those from a variety of backgrounds however experience of working with large-scale data sets is desirable.