Research
Every organism (including human beings), as far as we know, undergoes an irreversible and deteriorating process known as aging, which eventually leads to death. However, the DNA can pass on to the new organism once they complete the reproduction-and-reprogram procedure. Interestingly, somatic cells can also achieve “immortality” by mutation and thus reprograming into cancerous cells, indicating that the genome has the potential to live forever, at least at the cellular level (although this is often against the will of the organism). Such potentials are regulated by epigenetic mechanisms including DNA methylation, histone modifications and noncoding RNAs.
Our lab will use computational and functional genomics tools to study the mechanisms of aging and cancer, with a primary focus on epigenetic regulations. We will investigate how the dysfunction of heterochromatin, repetitive elements and transposons contributes to the oncogenic and aging processes. We will also continue to develop the most cutting-edge genomics and computational methods when in demand.