Kelly Nguyen

Research Group “Genome Biology”

Research - Brief summary

Repetitive elements, or repeats, comprise approximately two-thirds of the human genome. Although some repeats have well-established roles in essential cellular processes, the functions, regulation and evolutionary origins of many others remain poorly understood. Growing evidence nevertheless points to their physiological importance and links their dysregulation to human disease.

The Nguyen group investigates the molecular mechanisms that govern the function and regulation of repetitive elements. In the past years, our work has focused on elucidating key mechanisms that maintain telomeres, the repetitive DNA sequences that cap and protect chromosome ends. Our future work will investigate telomeres and other repetitive elements across human and diverse organisms. By combining biochemistry, functional studies in cells and cutting-edge imaging approaches, we aim to visualise the molecular machineries and cellular pathways that act on repeats across different spatial scales. Our work will establish how repetitive elements function and are regulated, and how their dysregulation contributes to disease.

Curriculum Vitae

Selected publications

* Equal contributions 

† Corresponding/co-corresponding authorships