Dr. Jim Hughes

Biography

Jim Hughes is a Professor in the Radcliffe Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford, where his research focuses on Gene Regulation and how it relates to health and disease. His studies involve understanding the basic biology of genes regulated by the mammalian genome and how sequence variation in the human population affects disease predisposition. Hughes leads a group that employs a combined molecular and bioinformatics background to utilize various tools such as molecular genomics, genome engineering, synthetic biology, and computational biology, including machine learning approaches. His work includes developing genomics-based technologies to investigate genome biology, notably through methods like Capture-C and transcriptomic techniques such as scaRNA-seq. His recent findings highlight the critical role of enhancer elements in controlling polymerase loading and the clustering of multiple enhancers and promoters in the 3D space of the nucleus, forming regulatory hubs essential for gene activation. This interdisciplinary approach culminates in an end-to-end framework capable of interpreting the effects of human sequence variation on gene expression, significantly contributing to the understanding of common human diseases.

Research Interests

Experience