Emmanuel Cazottes

Our DNA contains genes that provide instructions for making proteins essential for life. However, genes alone aren't enough – they need switches that control when and where they turn on or off. These switches, called regulatory elements, are scattered throughout our DNA, often far from the genes they control. About 650 000 potential regulatory elements have been identified in human DNA. However, we don't understand how they choose which genes to control or how they work. This is important because genetic changes in regulatory elements can lead to diseases, including cancer. Yet, we can't predict how these changes could affect our health. In the de Boer lab, I aim to develop a new technology to measure the regulatory activity of hundreds of thousands of regulatory elements in diverse cellular contexts, including cancerous cells and stem cells. Using artificial intelligence, we'll analyze this large dataset to uncover the rules regulatory elements follow.