Yujiang Shi, Ph.D.

Research

The long-term goal of my research is to understand how processing of human genomic information is controlled epigenetically through chromatin modifications and how dysregulation of these epigenetic events contributes to complex human diseases. It is becoming clear that epigenetic changes including alterations of chromatin modifications provide a key mechanism for regulating the diverse structural and functional features of chromatin, including control of gene regulation and maintenance of genomic integrity. These play critical roles in cell growth and survival, differentiation, embryonic development, and their related pathologies, including oncogenic transformation. In particular, we are interested in exploring novel mechanisms involved in regulation of eukaryotic gene expression. Mainly we try to understand how dynamic and coordinated changes of chromatin modifications including histone modification and DNA methylation (epigenetic codes) regulate gene expression in eukaryotic cells. We seek to identify novel epigenetic regulators and characterize their roles in controlling the patterns of epigenetic codes during normal cell differentiation and tissue development. We also try to understand how perturbation of these epigenetic processes could lead to complex human diseases.