Lei Guo, PhD

Education and Training

Ph.D. in Cancer Cell Biology, Xiamen University, China

Research Interests

Disruption of epigenetic regulation can cause aberrant transcriptional outputs, increased genome instability, and 3D genome disorganization, frequently observed in human diseases. My research interests are directed towards understanding how DNA/Histone modifications (DNA methylation/hydromethylation/demethylation, Histone acetylation/Histone methylation) homeostasis is maintained in humans and other mammals; how aberrant DNA/Histone modifications contribute to developmental defects, metabolic disorders, and oncogenesis. My research goals are to:

 (1) Define the dynamic changes of DNA methylation modifications (DNA methylome and hydroxymethylome) and their correlation with genome organization and gene transcription;

 (2) Understand how additional regulators (including co-existing mutations, inflammation, microbiota, and metabolites) promote the malignant transformation of blood cells with epigenetic defects;

 (3) Develop innovative single-cell epigenome analysis (Single-cell RNA-seq, Bulk RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, Single cell-ATAC-seq, Hi-ChIP, and Hi-C) and epigenome-editing tools (CRISPR) to probe how aberrant DNA/Histone modifications contribute to developmental defects and oncogenesis. 

 (4) Take advantage of High Throughput drug screening platform with access to state-of-the-art tools to support the discovery of new drugs and treatments for some of the most devastating diseases.