Biswajyoti Sahu

Image of Biswajyoti Sahu
Mobile phone +47 92237719
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Visiting address Gaustadalléen 21 Forskningsparken E2 0349 Oslo
Postal address Postboks 1137 Blindern 0318 Oslo

Research interests and expertise

My main research interest is to understand the role of gene regulatory elements such as enhancers in human enhanceropathies. Special focus is to delineate the lineage-specificity of human cancers to understand the role of lineage-specific transcription factors controlling cellular fate, state of differentiation and their collaboration with cancer-specific oncogenic drivers in human tumorigenesis.

I am an expert in transcription factor biology and cancer epigenomics as well as state-of-the-art functional genomics methods including bulk and single-cell RNA-sequencing for gene expression programs and their trajectories, ChIP-seq and CUT&RUN for transcription factor function and epigenomics, bisulfite- and nanopore sequencing for DNA methylome, ATAC-seq/DHS-seq, HiChIP, in situ Hi-C, and ChIA-PET for chromatin structure and higher-order interactions, massively parallel reporter assays (MPRA) for measuring promoter and enhancer activity from billions of unique sequences, perturbation of cellular pathways using RNAi, lentiviral expression and CRISPR-Cas9 systems as well as cell transcription factor-mediated fate conversion/transdifferentiation approaches.

Nuclear receptors and pioneer factors in hormonal cancers especially their role in epigenome reprogramming and lineage-plasticity.

Non-coding regulatory genome and the role of transposable elements in human cancers.

Research experience

2022 -        NCMM Group Leader, Precision Cancer Epigenomics

2018 -        Academy Research Fellow, Principal investigator, Research Programs Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland and Docent (Adjunct Professor in Molecular Genetics, University of Helsinki)

2018 – 2020    Visiting Scientist, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

2013 – 2018    Post-doctoral fellow, Genome-scale Biology Program, University of Helsinki, Finland. Centre of Excellence in Cancer Genetics and Centre of Excellence in Tumor Genetics (Professor Jussi Taipale’s laboratory)

2015    Post-doctoral mobility to Professor Richard Young’s laboratory, Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research, Cambridge, USA

2007 – 2012     Doctoral student, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland

Education

2012    PhD, Biomedicine and cancer research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland

2003    MSc, Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

Awards and Titles

2020    Docent in Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki

2018 – 2023    Research Fellowship, Academy of Finland

2018    Early-career Investigator Award, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki

2014 – 2017    Postdoctoral Fellowship, Academy of Finland

Recent talks

2022    Invited speaker at the Single-cell Symposium, University of Helsinki, Finland

2022    Invited speaker at 4th Oslo Epigenetics Symposium, University of Oslo, Norway

2022    Oral presentation in Keystone Symposium for Gene Regulation: From Emerging Technologies to New Models, Santa Fe, NM, USA

2022    Oral presentation in Systems Biology: Global Regulation of Gene Expression, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA

2017    Oral presentation in Systems Biology: Global Regulation of Gene Expression, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA

Outreach

Active collaborations in delineating the role of transcription factors, enhancer malfunction and epigenome reprogramming in human physiology and several human diseases not limited to cancer.

Novel methods from my research:
– Human cell transdifferentiation–transformation approach to understand the molecular determinants of human tumorigenesis by combining cell fate conversion and oncogene expression (Sahu et al, Oncogene 2021).

– Created several novel designs for massively parallel reporter assays for measuring human gene regulatory activity at 100x sequence space of human genome and for de novo construction of human promoters and enhancers using completely random synthetic sequences (Sahu et al, Nature Genetics, 2022).

Tags: Cancer, Cell biology, Gene regulation, Precision Medicine, Systems Medicine

Publications

View all works in Cristin

  • Sahu, Biswajyoti (2023). Single Cell Biology: From Development to Cancer.
  • Sahu, Biswajyoti (2023). Multi-omic data analysis and integration for precision medicine.
  • Sahu, Biswajyoti (2023). A molecular approach to genetic and epigenetic gene regulation, from basic research to the clinic.
  • Sahu, Biswajyoti (2023). Molecular approach to study human cancers and the role of epigenome reprogramming.
  • Sahu, Biswajyoti (2022). A novel factor indexing multiome approach to dissect determinants of cell fate control.
  • Sahu, Biswajyoti (2022). Sequence determinants of human gene regulatory elements and the role of transcription factors in cell fate control and cancer.

View all works in Cristin

Published Sep. 30, 2022 3:09 PM - Last modified July 11, 2023 1:53 PM