Jason D. Lieb

In the broadest terms, we seek to understand how information is encoded and dynamically utilized in living eukaryotic genomes. We focus specifically on those areas of the genome that regulate chromosomal functions such as transcription, DNA replication and repair, recombination, and chromosome segregation.

The projects in my laboratory are united by the scientific goal of understanding relationships between chromatin, transcription factor targeting, and gene expression. We use three biological systems: (1) S. cerevisiae (hereafter "yeast") to address basic molecular mechanisms; (2) C. elegans to test the importance of those mechanisms in a simple multicellular organism; and (3) cell lines and clinical samples to directly interrogate chromatin function in human development and disease. The genomes of these organisms span three orders of magnitude in size (12 Mb, 100 Mb, and 3000 Mb respectively) and a wide range of genome complexity (~50% coding, ~25% coding, and ~1.5% coding respectively). Use of these systems, with C. elegans serving as a "stepping stone"  to bridge yeast and human studies, permits us to quickly bring concepts discovered in model systems to medical relevance.

• 2011-2015 Uniting disparate fields to explore transcription factor binding dynamics, NIH RO1. Lieb (PI)
• 2012-2015 Highly parallel functional characterization of human regulatory elements, NIH RO1. Lieb, Segal (PI)  
• 2007-2011 Identification of DNA Elements Governing Chromatin Function in C. elegans, NIH/NHGRI U01. Lieb (PI)
  This grant includes 7 co-investigators and aims to identify discrete elements that regulate chromatin structure and function in the nematode C. elegans.
• 2005-2010 Genomic Approaches to DNA-binding Specificity in vivo .NIH/NHGRI R01. Lieb (PI). These experiments aim to determine the mechanistic relationship between transcription, chromatin organization, and DNA-binding site utilization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
• 2004-2007 STAGE and FAIRE for Regulatory Element Identification. NIH/NHGRI R01. Iyer (PI), Lieb (Co-PI)
  The objective of this proposal is to develop and combine two entirely new genomic technologies for identifying functional elements in the human genome.
• 2002-2005 The National Human Genome Research Institute Genome Faculty Transition Award (K22).
• 2002-2004 The V Foundation for Cancer Research Scholar
• 1999-2002 Helen Hay Whitney Post-Doctoral Fellow
• 1999 John Belling Prize in Genetics