Il seminario riassumerà i fondamenti teorici e le applicazioni dei metodi strutturali di natura cristallografica e non solo. Nel dettaglio si descriveranno i metodi di indagine della struttura  delle molecole e di materiali di interesse chimico e fisico e di macromolecole biologiche.

This course explores epigenetic mechanisms and chromatin architecture as fundamental pillars of cellular identity regulation, examining how the same genome can give rise to distinct phenotypes in both physiological and pathological contexts. Through the analysis of key processes such as DNA methylation and histone modifications, the course will discuss how cells “write”, “read”, and “erase” regulatory information in order to maintain their functional memory.
The course will also present several advanced next-generation sequencing technologies — including ChIP-seq, CUT&RUN, ATAC-seq, and Hi-C — that enable high-resolution mapping of chromatin accessibility and three-dimensional genome organization. Finally, we will analyze how the reprogramming of enhancers and super-enhancers can drive tumor progression and metastatic plasticity, discussing the implications for precision medicine and for epigenome editing through CRISPR-based systems.
In the second part of the course, the essential bioinformatic principles and methodologies for the analysis of NGS data will be introduced. In particular, the workflow from sequence alignment to the reference genome through the identification of enriched regions (“peaks”) and their visualization using genome browsers will be illustrated. The technical depth of this section will be adapted to the participants’ background knowledge.