Research

Mammalian genome editing

1. Mammalian gene writing and gene therapy technologies

We are working on new principles to write long messages into genomes.

Gene writing
Novel CRISPR systems
Directed evolution

2. Bioinformatics for genome editing assessment

We develop analysis pipelines for the analysis and prediction of gene and genome editing experiments.

We are focused, on the one hand, in the screen of integrations on the genome for precise and secure genome engineering. On the other hand, we are interested in the characterization of on-target edition profiles and efficiency. Since reproducibility in bioinformatics can be an issue to overcome, we take care of this in our analysis. We develop pipelines with Nextflow and Docker containers to achieve reproducibility and allow the easy usage of our tools.

Related publications

Find and cut-and-transfer (FiCAT) mammalian genome engineering

Maria Pallarès-Masmitjà+, Dimitrije Ivančić+, Júlia Mir-Pedrol, Jessica Jaraba-Wallace, Tommaso Tagliani, Baldomero Oliva, Amal Rahmeh, Avencia Sánchez-Mejías* & Marc Güell*

Nature Communications 2021
(Horizon 2020, Fundació Ramón Areces)

Funding

Microbiome engineering

1. Human microbiome engineering

Our lab is focused on the development of new skin microbiome technologies.

The skin is the largest organ of the human body and is home to millions of microbes. Using diverse tools from genomics and synthetic biology, we seek to engineer the natural adaptability of these microbes. Our approach is to develop biological devices (”biodevices”) able to act as smart drug-delivery systems upon the sensing of relevant skin molecules like pro-inflammatory markers, among others. Our interests span from common acne to chronic inflammatory disorders like Atopic Dermatitis (AD). Specifically, we use Cutibacterium acnes as a stable and robust chassis for synthetic biology in the skin using a wide range of techniques from classic genomics and transcriptomics to cell-free systems and phage engineering.