Dr. Marco Orecchioni has pioneered work showing that immune cells in your arteries can “sniff ” out their surroundings and cause in lammation. These cells, called macrophages, have the same kind of olfactory receptors found in the nose. As these macrophages detect early markers of cardiovascular disease, they kick off an in lammatory response and make matters worse. Dr. Orecchioni’s work suggests we could block this process to stop heart disease progression
Ferhat Ay, Ph.D., is building some of the world’s smallest maps. These maps trace the wiring inside a cell’s nucleus to reveal how genes interact and how the body fights disease. Only about 2% of our DNA accounts for genes; the remaining 98% harbor regulatory switches that control when and how active each gene is. Some switches are positioned right next to the gene they control, but some are far apart and brought close together as our DNA folds into a complex 3D shape inside the cell nucleus. Join Ay as he discusses how he uses computational tools to understand how individual variations in the intricate 3D architecture of our genome directly impact how our immune system fights disease.
