Rosana Collepardo

In Plain English

Inside our cells, the DNA is not found free, it is wound around proteins, forming a remarkable structure know as chromatin. Through chromatin, the DNA compresses enormously to fit inside tiny (6 μm) nuclei, stores information at high densities and, moreover, maintains exquisite control over the accessibility of the data it carries. One way in which DNA access is controlled is through epigenetic marks: a pattern of chemical modificaitons that allow the same DNA sequences to be interpreted differently, generating diversity of cells. Indeed, epigenetics explain why the different cell types in our body (e.g. liver, skin, brain) have different behaviors despite having exactly the same DNA sequence. Our group develops computational approaches to investigate the physical principles that explain the storage and access of DNA inside cells, and the epigenetic control of chromatin structure . We also investigate the design principles of data storage in chromatin with the aim of translating them into design rules for novel sustainable data storage devices.