Speaker: Dr. Elisa Donnard, research scientist, Lander Lab, Broad Institute

Moderator: Dr. Mirian Hayashi, associate professor, EPM/Unifesp

Over the past decades, thousands of trait-associated genomic variants have been identified, and most of them are found within regulatory regions. However, only a small number of these have been functionally characterized, partly due to the cell type specific nature of these elements. One of the mechanisms through which these variants impact gene expression is by altering the binding of transcription factors (TFs). Our primary goal is to leverage the observed changes in gene expression and TF binding caused by natural genetic variation to help map regulatory networks in various cell states and types. This can be done in a high-throughput way by performing population scale experiments using cell villages. In this work, we explore villages of induced pluripotent stem cells from hundreds of donors submitted through short term differentiation protocols to build networks involved in early state change transitions.