معرفی
Jim Hughes is a Professor of Gene Regulation at the University of Oxford's MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine. He leads the Hughes Group: Genome Biology, focusing on understanding gene regulation in health and disease. His work integrates molecular genomics, computational biology, and machine learning to study chromatin architecture, enhancer-promoter interactions, and the impact of genetic variation on disease susceptibility. Key contributions include developing technologies like Capture-C, scaRNA-seq, and deepC for genome analysis.
Research interests center on how genes are regulated during cellular differentiation, with a focus on enhancer elements, CTCF sites, and regulatory hubs. Recent findings include the role of enhancers in transcription initiation and the development of frameworks linking genomic variation to disease. He collaborates with the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit and the Dark Matter Project, and chairs Nucleome Therapeutics, an Oxford spinout.
Publications highlight breakthroughs in understanding leukemia oncogene activation, single-cell ATAC-seq modeling (REnformer), and the structural basis of genetic diseases. His work bridges basic science and clinical applications, particularly in hematology and rare diseases. Notable tools like CSynth and LanceOtron enable 3D chromatin modeling and data analysis.
Advising and grants involve training researchers in genome engineering and synthetic biology. His lab's innovations in chromatin conformation capture and epigenetic mapping have advanced both fundamental biology and translational medicine.
