Topic: enhancers

This lecture examines the sequence features through which enhancers bind transcription factors and control gene expression. It introduces computational approaches, including neural networks, for recognising regulatory DNA and potentially designing synthetic elements. It also compares recurring arrangements of enhancers around genes important in mammalian development.

During life, a variety of specialized cells arise to grant the right and timely corrected functions of tissues and organs. Regulation of chromatin in defining specialized genomic regions (e.g. enhancers) plays a key role in developmental transitions from progenitors into cell lineages. These enhancers, properly topologically positioned in 3D space, ultimately guide the transcriptional programs. It is becoming clear that several pathologies converge in differential enhancer usage with respect to physiological situations. However, why some regulatory regions are physiologically preferred, while