Peter J. Park

HST Informatics Program at Children's Hospital Boston
Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics
New Research Building, Room 255
77 Avenue Louis Pasteur
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: (617) 432-7373
Fax: (617) 525-4488
Email: peter_park@harvard.edu

Web Page: The Park Lab Page
6 postdoctoral fellows, 2 bioinformatics analysts, 2 graduate students

Statistical Analysis of Genomic Data
Our methodological interest is in the development of computational techniques for integrative analysis of genomic data sets. We have worked extensively on analysis of data from microarray-based technologies, including expression arrays, tiling arrays for DNA-protein interactions, and array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) for detecting chromosomal aberrations. Careful analysis includes proper processing, detection of relevant feature in the data by application of appropriate statistical methods, and proper estimation of their statistical significance. Many members of our laboratory have quantitative backgrounds including mathematics, physics, computer science and statistics.

Epigenomics
Our biological focus is on chromatin structure and its relationship to gene regulation. In collaboration with several laboratories, we have profiled a number of histone modifications as well as gene expression and/or nucleosome positions in several model systems. We are also involved in a model organism ENCODE project in which we are mapping more than a hundred chromatin-associated proteins and histone modifications in several tissues and developmental stages of Drosophila. By computational and statistical analysis of these data, we aim to uncover the principles behind epigenetic mechanisms.

References:

• Kharchenko PV*, Woo CJ*, Tolstorukov MY, Kingston RE**, Park PJ**. Nucleosome positioning in human HOX gene clusters, Genome Research, in press. 
• Alekseyenko AA*, Peng S*, Larschan E, Gorchakov AA, Lee O-K, Kharchenko P, McGrath S, Wang C, Mardis E, Park PJ**, Kuroda MI**. A sequence motif within chromatin entry sites directs MSL establishment on the Drosophila X chromosome, Cell, in press.
• Orford K*, Kharchenko PV*, Lai WR, Dao MC, Worhunsky D, Park PJ**, Scadden DT**. Differential H3K4 methylation identifies developmentally poised hematopoietic genes, Developmental Cell, 14:798-809, 2008.