Steven Henikoff

Dr. Steven Henikoff is a Professor in the Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He is also an Affiliate Faculty member in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington. His research focuses on understanding the structure, function, and evolution of DNA molecules and chromosomes through the development of innovative genomic tools.

Dr. Henikoff's research interests center on chromatin dynamics and epigenetics. His laboratory has pioneered enzyme-tethering strategies including DamID (2000), ChEC-seq (2015), CUT&RUN (2017), CUT&Tag (2019), CUTAC (2020), and MulTI-Tag (2021). His work has led to significant insights into nucleosome dynamics, transcription factor binding, chromatin remodeling, and the deregulation of these processes in cancer. His technological innovations have been adopted by hundreds of laboratories worldwide and have fueled commercial development of numerous kits and products.

Dr. Henikoff's laboratory has produced numerous significant publications that have advanced our understanding of chromatin biology. His recent work has focused on hypertranscription in cancer, nucleosome dynamics during replication and transcription, centromere evolution, and the development of novel chromatin profiling techniques applicable to formalin-fixed tissues. His research spans fundamental molecular mechanisms to translational applications in cancer diagnostics and treatment.

• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
• Affiliate Faculty, Genome Sciences, University of Washington
• Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutch

Dr. Henikoff has mentored numerous postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to establish their own successful research programs at institutions including Washington University in St. Louis, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Emory University. His laboratory's outreach efforts include the CUT&Tag@home project, which was recognized by The Scientist magazine as one of the top technical advances of 2020.

His laboratory maintains active collaborations across multiple disciplines, with research spanning basic molecular mechanisms of chromatin dynamics to translational applications in cancer diagnostics. Current projects focus on better understanding inheritance that does not depend on DNA sequence by applying genomic tools to study proteins of the epigenome including histones, transcription factors, nucleosome remodelers, and RNA polymerase II.