[FG] Zaugg Judith

Systems epigenetics to study disease mechanisms in hematology and immunology

A crucial part of precision medicine is to quantitatively understand the interplay of genetics, epigenetics, and environmental factors, including the cellular microenvironment. Our vision is to understand how cells integrate genetic and epigenetic information with extrinsic signals from their microenvironment, and how these molecular layers jointly contribute to cellular phenotypes that ultimately define complex disease phenotypes.

Our main systems of interest are:

(i) The bone marrow niche, where we aim to understand how hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells interact with their immune and stromal microenvironment, how these interactions are disrupted in hematological malignancies, and how they contribute to disease progression or therapy resistance

(ii) Immune cells and their tissue-interactions in immune dysfunction, infection, and cancer. Here we are interested in understanding the cell-type specific regulatory networks and tissue-interactions that contribute to disease mechanisms.

We are developing system biology approaches that combine deep molecular profiling and advanced computational modelling, and that can be applied to clinical samples. We combine cutting-edge single cell multiomics profiling (RNA, chromatin, spatial single cell profiling), combining our own and commercial technologies, and predictive computational models that generate testable mechanistic hypotheses. These hypotheses are tested in appropriate models using genetic perturbations, followed by cellular and high-resolution molecular imaging, including spatial transcriptomics or high-end microscopy.