Research Expertise and Interest
genomics, genome sequencing, bioinformatics, animal development
Research Description
Michael B. Eisen is a Professor of Genetics and Development. The Eisen Lab studies how the genomic sequences that control gene expression function and evolve. They are driven by a desire to understand the molecular basis of organismal diversity, and the belief that many differences in physiology, morphology and behavior arise from changes in gene regulation. Their ultimate goal is to be able to interpret the regulatory information encoded in genomic DNA, so that they can routinely identify regulatory sequences, discern their function, predict the consequences of their perturbation, and reconstruct how they evolved.
They are a hybrid computational and experimental lab who couple genome-scale computational and experimental analysis of gene regulation in Drosophila melanogaster and Saccharomyces cerevisiae with extensive analysis of comparative sequence data and experimental analysis of species closely related to these model systems. They focus on short evolutionary timescales where it is possible to couple specific changes in genome sequences with alterations in gene regulation and expression.
