Richard Sherwood develops computationally driven methods to predict genome function and stem cell fate determination. His focus is developing a predictive understanding of how transcription factors combine to regulate cell type-specific gene expression in normal and diseased states.
Using CRISPR-based genome editing and single cell RNA-sequencing, Sherwood developed a suite of novel high-throughput genomic perturbation platforms that improve our understanding of how cell fate is controlled through tissue-specific gene regulatory activity.
Research in the Sherwood Lab
The human genome contains around 20,000 genes. Pretty much everything that makes humans so special, and everything that can go wrong in disease, relates to the function and regulation of these 20,000 genes. Our lab is interested in what makes these genes tick. How is each gene regulated so as to be expressed when and where it is needed? Which mutations in the genome lead to pathogenic gene activity? Can we fix altered states of gene regulation and gene function to treat human diseases?
Research in the Sherwood lab is organized into four interconnected themes that tackle the different angles of this overall goal.
Biosketch
After completing undergraduate studies at Stanford University, Rich Sherwood trained in the lab of Irv Weissman before pursuing his graduate studies in the lab of Doug Melton in HSCRB. He completed an independent fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, with mentorship from Dick Maas and David Gifford, where he worked on improving embryonic stem cell differentiation toward endodermal lineages and researched the transcriptional mechanisms underlying differentiation.
Sherwood runs a lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, focusing on the intersection of genomics, genome editing, stem cell biology, and computational biology.