Uwe Ohler's Research Group
Computational Biology of Gene Regulation
We use computational approaches to understand the biology of gene regulation in eukaryotic organisms. The expression of genes is a multi-step process that is tightly controlled on several levels — a large number of protein and RNA factors and DNA and RNA sequence elements enable the precise regulation of interacting gene products. According to our current understanding, this complexity in higher organisms is not achieved by a more complex repertoire of parts, i. e. genes, but instead by the more complex regulation of the parts. It is a key challenge to decipher these complex networks of players and interactions, and to move biology from case studies to a more global approach.
Computational biology has become indispensable to analyze, integrate and ultimately make sense of large-scale data sets that look at the phenomenon of gene regulation from different angles. We are developing computational methods that use these diverse sources of information and lead to models making predictions. These predictions are often tested experimentally, either by us or our friends and collaborators. The long term goal is to investigate how regulatory networks enable the development of complex organisms.