Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) play a vital role in metazoan development and function. They are composed of interactions between genomic (i.e. regulatory elements) and regulatory state components (i.e. transcription factors (TFs)).

We undertake interdisciplinary approach, combining expertise from three scientific groups, to study at an unprecedented scale and depth the structural and dynamic properties of GRNs in Drosophila imaginal discs.

The project is based on three recent experimental advances:

1. the availability of a comprehensive Drosophila TF clone resource;
2. the ability to generate in a high-throughput fashion transgenic Drosophila lines such that expression of tagged TFs occurs from the same chromosomal location; and
3. the development of high-throughput sequencing techniques to analyze transcriptional events on a genome-wide, but still highly detailed scale.

Combined, these advances now make it possible, for the first time, to determine the genome-wide DNA-binding profiles for each TF in a post-embryonic organism and relate these binding events to gene regulation.