Research Interest


Allele-Specific Expression can reveal genes which are deregulated by cis-acting non-coding regulatory mutations even when the identify of the specific mutations are unknown.

Discovering and characterizing non-coding driver mutations in human health and diseases. Non-coding mutations are crucial drivers of tumorigenesis; however, their role in gene deregulation is challenging to interpret because regulatory sequences are often located hundreds of kilobases away from their gene targets, and different regulatory sequences may be mutated in different patients. In our lab, we develop computational and molecular biology methods to identify and characterize non-coding regulatory mutations in human health and diseases.


CRISPR-Cas9 fused to the KRAB domain to perturb TF binding to regulatory sequences.

Determining the causes of therapy resistance and relapse of neuroblastomas. Undifferentiated neuroblastoma tumors are typically associated with chemotherapy resistance and a high frequency of relapse. We identify transcription factors and chromatin modifiers contributing to developing stem-like neuroblastoma cells and use CRISPR interference to decipher their downstream transcriptional dependencies.


Identify molecular mechanisms underlying novel drug sensitivity

Molecular mechanism of drug sensitivity. We utilize various NGS and CRISPR-based methods to identify the genes underlying sensitivity to novel drugs in neuroblastoma and other pediatric cancers.