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About the Department of Systems Biology

One of the defining features of living organisms is their astonishing complexity. Even seemingly simple single cell organisms such as microbes display exceedingly complex behaviors, determined by intricate molecular networks in which large numbers of molecular components, pathways and chemical reactions act together. These behaviors have fascinated scientists for decades and include development, response to pathogenic and environmental insults and interactions with other organisms. Understanding how complexity of living systems arises and coordinates cellular function and pathologies continues to be one of the principal goals of biomedical research today. Read more about how the Department of Systems Biology tackles these questions on our Research and About pages.



The Department of Systems Biology (DSB) studies how biological complexity can be derived and understood from the interplay between individual components and processes that make up living organisms.

For information about our Graduate and Summer Undergraduate Programs as well as the application process, please see our Education Page.


DSB Spotlight


A new paper published in Nature Cell Biology from the Dekker lab identifies two distinct folding programs – one dependent on chromosome intrinsic factors and the other on imported cytoplasmic factors – necessary for establishing interphase chromosome conformation as cells proceed from mitosis to G1. Learn more about this work, highlights from the experimental journey and the first author Allana Schooley in this Q&A

Read the paper: Interphase chromosome conformation is specified by distinct folding programmes inherited through mitotic chromosomes or the cytoplasm

Read Accompanying News & Views: Inheriting chromosome conformation

 

Additional news from the DSB

DSB Seminar Series

All seminars will take place at 11am in AS6-2072 (unless otherwise noted)

Norbert Perrimon, PhD
Professor, Harvard Medical School
Title: "Systems-Level Insights into Inter-Organ Communication and Metabolic Regulation in Drosophila"
January 8, 2026
Host: Daniel Bondeson
John Doench, PhD
Director of Research and Development in the Genetic Perturbation Platform, Broad Institute
January 29, 2026
Host: Jolanda van Leeuwen
Stirling Churchman, PhD
Professor, Harvard Medical School
February 12, 2026
Host: Marian Walhout
Alison Taylor, PhD
Assistant Professor, Columbia University Medical Center
February 19, 2026
Host: Emma Watson
 

 Recent Publications


Interphase chromosome conformation is specified by distinct folding programmes inherited through mitotic chromosomes or the cytoplasm

Nature Cell Biology. 2025 Dec 22
Allana Schooley, Sergey V Venev, Vasilisa Aksenova, Jesse W Lehman, Emily Navarrete, Athma A Pai, Job Dekker
Also see accompanying News & Views: Inheriting chromosome conformation

An integrated view of the structure and function of the human 4D nucleome

Nature. 2025 Dec 17
Job Dekker, Betul Akgol Oksuk,...., Liyan Yang, Johan H Gibcus,....Sergey V Venev
Also see accompanying News & Views: Systematic maps reveal how human chromosomes are organized

E. coli transcription factors regulate promoter activity by a universal, homeostatic mechanism

Science. 2025 Sept 11
Vinuselvi Parisutham, Sunil Guharajan, Melina Lian, MD Zulfikar Ali, Hannah Rogers, Shannon Joyce, Mariana Noto Guillen, Robert C Brewster

Predicting drug inactivation by changes in bacterial growth dynamics

npj Antimicrobials and Resistance. 2025 Sept 9
Carmen Li, Serkan Sayin, Ethan Hau Chian Chang, Amir Mitchell

RNA Pol II inhibition activates cell death independently from the loss of transcription

Cell. 2025 Aug 15
Nicholas W. Harper, Gavin A. Birdsall, Megan E. Honeywell, Kelly M. Ward, Athma A. Pai, Michael J. Lee

Worm Perturb-Seq: massively parallel whole-animal RNAi and RNA-seq

Nature Communications. 2025 May 23
Hefei Zhang, Xuhang Li, Dongyuan Song, Onur Yukselen, Shivani Nanda, Alper Kucukaral, Jingyi Jessica Li, Manuel Garber, Albertha J.M. Walhout

 

Aneuploidy generates enhanced nucleotide dependency and sensitivity to metabolic perturbation

Genes & Development. 2025 May 5
Rayna Y. Magesh, Arshia N. Kaur, Faith N. Keller, Abdulrazak Frederick, Tenzin Tseyang, John A. Haley, Alejandra M. Rivera, Anthony C. Liang, David A. Guertin, Jessica B. Spinelli, Stephen J. Elledge, Emma V. Watson