Christina Paliou

The paper shows that activation of an LTR retrotransposon in the embryo leads to viral-like particle production, causing limb malformations through apoptotic cell death.

The paper shows that divergent gene expression within TADs is resolved through TAD restructuring and DNA methylation, not enhancer-promoter compatibility or position.

The paper shows that preformed chromatin topology supports robust Shh transcription during limb development, with CTCF and ZRS alleles influencing enhancer-promoter communication.

The paper investigates TAD function in mice by editing TAD organization, finding that TADs provide robustness but are not essential for gene regulation, and that disease phenotypes arise from re-direction of regulatory contacts.