Blog Archives

After a 2 year scholarship in the Taipale Group, Fan Zhong has now returned to China and is an Associate Researcher in Bioinformatics at the Laboratory of Systems Biology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University.    

We have reported that transcription factor binding occurs in dense clusters. Since these clusters are enriched by known in vitro TF motifs, it is possible to predict the location of these clusters using motif matches. The accuracy of the prediction was found to be intimately related to the stringency level used. In order to optimise the stringency level for each TF, and in turn to make a better prediction for the location of the clusters, I hope to quantify the TFs in living cells and improve ChIP-Seq by using identical affinity tags for the different TFs.

I achieved my Ph.D. in January 2014 at Karolinska Institutet working on genetics of primary immunodeficiency disorders. I joined Taipale group as a new postdoctoral researcher in September 2014; my main research interests are enhancer elements and DNA (de)methylation. Using advanced technologies (e.g. whole genome bisulfite sequencing and the CRISPR/Cas9 system) and well-established data analyzing pipelines, hopefully we can open up new ways of understanding the mechanism of cancer development.

My scientific interest is mainly about the mechanisms of cell fate determination, especially in stem cells and cancer cells. I am curious about how the potency of differentiation is maintained in stem cells and what factors play major roles in particular cell lines. In order to fulfill this goal, quite a few technologies will be utilized such as SELEX-seq, ChIP-Seq, RNA-Seq, DNase I hypersensitivity assays and so on. With the help of these high throughput methods in the lab, I will study the interactions between transcription factors and the gene regulatory regions within the genome, trying to decipher the master transcription factors crucial for different cell fates. Furthermore, by looking through the results, we should understand the plasticity of the genome in the cells at a molecular level and finally we can obtain a clearer picture of the mechanisms of cell fate determination.

ex post-doc Principle Investigator, School of Medicine at Tongji University Homepage: https://med.tongji.edu.cn/Web/FaultyShow/51?tid=882