Joanna K. Wysocka

Research in the Wysocka laboratory is focused on understanding how regulatory information encoded by the genome is interpreted by transcription factors and chromatin modifying machinery to allow for emergence of form and function during human embryogenesis and evolution, and how perturbations in this process lead to disease. Her laboratory is employing a broad combination of genomic, genetic, biochemical, biophysical, and embryological approaches to investigate function and regulation of the non-coding genome and to understand regulatory principles governing stem cell identity, cellular plasticity and differentiation. Using cranial neural crest cells and human face as a model, Wysocka and colleagues are investigating how quantitative changes in gene transcription dictate phenotypic differences between individuals and species. Some of her group’s notable contributions include discovery of chromatin signatures associated with active and primed enhancer elements, development of new approaches to observe and perturb cis-regulatory regions in the genome, studies of human retroelement activity and function during human development, and insights into the mechanisms by which non-coding and coding mutations lead to changes in gene expression that drive evolution, individual variation and disease of the human craniofacial complex.