Rewriting regulatory DNA to dissect and reprogram gene expression
Our latest work is now online in Cell: rewriting regulatory DNA to dissect and reprogram gene expression.
Our new method — Variant-EFFECTS — combines high-throughput prime editing with flow sorting and sequencing to precisely measure the effects of noncoding variants on gene expression. Instead of asking whether an entire regulatory element matters by deleting or silencing it, we tile small, defined edits across regulatory elements and read out exactly how each one nudges a gene up or down.
That lets us do two things at once: dissect how a regulatory element is wired at single-base resolution, and design edits that reprogram a gene’s expression in a targeted way — turning it up or down by design.
Read the paper in Cell · Adapted from the original announcement on Bluesky.