Research Summary
Jesse Raab is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics at UNC. His lab is interested in how changes to the composition of chromatin remodeling complexes are regulated, how their disruption affects their function, and how this contributes to liver disease and liver cancer. We focus on the SWI/SNF complex, which is mutated in 20% of all human tumors including ~25% of liver cancer. This complex contains many variable subunits that can be assembled in combination to yield thousands of biochemically distinct complexes. lWe use a variety of computational techniques, functional genomics, and molecular tools in cell culture and animal models to understand how disruption of chromatin regulators contributes to inappropriate responses to liver damage and ultimately cancer. Understanding the role of chromatin in the liver will lead to new therapeutic avenues in liver disease and liver cancer.
Relevance of Research to CGIBD Mission: The Raab lab studies chromatin regulation in the context of liver disease and liver cancer in an effort to uncover new ways to treat these diseases.
CGIBD Focus Area(s): Liver
