"Epigenetics has taken center stage for many questions in biomedical research in the last decade. Epigenetic modification plays an essential role in the development of cardiovascular diseases. My interest lies in investigating how mutations in chromatin remodeling genes can cause dysregulation in the epigenome and lead to cardiomyopathy. I aim to establish genomics markers for the early identification of disease. Towards this, we do next-generation sequencing of the cardiomyopathy patients to find mutations and perform functional analysis of these mutations by creating patient-derived iPSC lines and differentiating them from cardiomyocytes. We employ ChIP-Seq, ATAC-Seq, Single-cell RNA-Seq, and Mass Spectroscopy to solve the mechanisms behind disease phenotype."

Harshil Chittora

PhD Student (GS-2019)