Research Expertise and Interest

genetics, epigenetics, CRISPR-based genome and epigenome editing

Research Description

James Nuñez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, a Hanna Gray Fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and an Investigator of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.  The core interest of his research group is to understand the regulatory principles of the human genome. Specifically, the Nuñez lab investigates the molecular principles underlying epigenetic memory and inheritance in mammalian cells: how cells establish the ‘epigenome’ to control gene expression programs; how the epigenome maintained and remodeled as cells divide and differentiate; and how defects in these pathways lead to disease. The Nuñez lab combines functional genomics CRISPR screens, cell biology, and biochemistry to answer their research questions. Concurrently, the Nuñez lab develops and applies CRISPR-based programmable technologies for editing the epigenome by writing/erasing DNA and histone modifications at any genomic locus, enabling perturbations of gene expression programs without changing the DNA sequence of the human genome.