Spring 2026 Grantee Highlight:
Aviva Presser Aiden

Aviva Presser Aiden, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Pediatrics, University of Texas Medical Branch

The genome is not just a linear sequence of DNA. It is folded in three dimensions inside the nucleus, and that architecture helps control gene regulation. A central question in biology is how the genome’s three-dimensional organization affects development and maintains tissue function, and what happens when that configuration is disrupted. Proteins that organize this structure are essential for development, yet they have been difficult to study because conventional mouse knockouts are embryonic lethal.

Aviva Aiden and her team will use specially engineered mice in which key genome-organizing proteins can be temporally depleted. This unique approach will allow the researchers to directly observe how disrupting genome architecture affects DNA folding and gene regulation across development in a whole organism.

This work could provide fundamental insight into how genome architecture coordinates gene regulation during development and reveal how alterations in that organization contribute to human disease.

Learn more about the Aiden Lab: www.aaidenlab.org