Transposable elements as regulators of gene expression

Understanding the role of transposable elements as gene regulators is important, because they make up 50% of the genome, but are relatively understudied in comparison to genes which make up 2% of the genome. In our lab, we take on the exciting challenge of understanding the role of locus-specific Transposable elements as regulators of gene expression in development by studying the activity of transposable elements in single cells using our unique method CELLO-seq using long read sequencing. 

In this PhD project, you will learn a diverse set of techniques (CRISPR, embryonic stem cell cultures, third generation sequencing technologies and in-depth quantitative analysis) and work together with others in an team comprised of molecular biologists, developmental biologists, biochemists, and data scientists.  We will teach you how to perform high-quality science and design your own experiments to develop your own project and make use of the training you received. This research, carried out together with collaborators at the University of Oxford, the University of Edinburgh, and elsewhere, should lead to new discoveries and insights that inform our quantitative understanding of locus-specific transposable elements as new regulators of gene expression in development. These discoveries will advance this novel exciting field while contributing to the next generation of single cell long read methods.