The Gribnau lab investigates how gene expression is regulated during development, cell differentiation, and regeneration, and how disruptions in this regulation contribute to disease. Our central question is how cells switch genes on and off at the right time and at the right level to establish and maintain their identity.
We study X chromosome inactivation, the process by which female cells silence one of their two X chromosomes, to reveal the broader gene regulatory mechanisms that establish and maintain cell identity.
To understand how these decisions unfold over time, we developed DCM-TM, a technology that reconstructs the past activity of genes and regulatory elements from a single snapshot of a cell, helping us understand how cell fate decisions are made during differentiation, development and regeneration.
