Päivi Pihlajamaa

I am interested in the regulation of cellular processes by transcription factors, and especially, how aberrant transcriptional pathways promote tumorigenesis. My main project focuses on studying the transcriptional targets of the MYC oncogene and their role in regulating cell growth and proliferation.To this end, I am using modern experimental methods in mammalian cells, such as CRISPR/Cas9-based precision genome editing and genome-wide screening approaches, to study the functional relationship between transcription factor binding, gene expression, and cell proliferation.