“Exploring the impact of noncoding genetic variation in humans”

Hundreds of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have found that the vast majority of human genetic variation impacting complex traits occurs outside of protein-coding regions, yet our understanding of these noncoding variants is still quite poor. I will describe our recent efforts to explore the impact of these functional variants. We have developed new experimental approaches to detect which variants affect key components of transcriptional regulation such as transcription factor binding, DNA methylation, and histone modification. We are also developing new computational methods for detecting natural selection in noncoding regions, revealing a dominant role of cis-regulatory changes in recent human adaptation.

Speaker: Hunter Fraser

Assistant Professor

Stanford University

Monday, May 18, 2015

4:10-5:00 PM

1022 Life Sciences