Leonid A. Mirny, Ph.D.

Professor of Medical Engineering and Science, and Physics
Associate Member of the Broad Institute at Harvard and MIT; and of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center
Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, MIT; and Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology

Using computational tools, modeling, and analysis of genomic data to address fundamental problems in biological physics and evolution.

Our laboratory research focuses on two major projects:
* Understanding 3D genome organization by computer modeling and analysis of different experimental data.
* Using cancer genomic data, computer simulations and comparative genomics to characterize cancer progression as an evolutionary process. Our goal is to use this knowledge to develop new therapeutic interventions.

The Mirny lab has been working on genomic analysis and biophysical modeling of various molecular systems. Our efforts are focused on characterization of higher-order chromatin structure and are aimed to reveal basic physical and biological principles that determine chromosome conformations and dynamics. Recent progress of our group led to development of both physical concepts, such as the fractal globule model of chromatin organization during interphase, as well as computational tools, such as ICE pipeline for analysis of Hi-C data. Recent achievements include characterization of bacterial chromosome in C.Caulobacter, in collaboration with the Laub lab at MIT; characterization and modeling of human mitotic chromosome, with the Dekker lab at UMass Medical School; analysis of chromosomal organization in S.Pombe with the Grewal lab at NIH.

Selected Publications:

Naumova N, Imakaev M, Fudenberg G, Zhan Y, Lajoie BR, Mirny LA, Dekker J. Organization of the Mitotic Chromosome. Science, 2013 342(6161).
<http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6161/948.full>http://www.sciencema...

Dekker J, Marti-Renom MA, Mirny LA. Exploring the three-dimensional organization of genomes: interpreting chromatin interaction data. Nat Rev Genet. 2013 Jun;14(6):390-403.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23657480

Le TB, Imakaev MV, Mirny LA, Laub MT. High-resolution mapping of the spatial organization of a bacterial chromosome. Science. 2013 Nov 8;342(6159):731-4.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24158908

McFarland CD, Korolev KS, Kryukov GV, Sunyaev S, Mirny LA. The impact of deleterious passenger mutations on cancer progression. PNAS 2013 110(7).
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/05/1213968110

Research highlight by Burgess DJ. "Tumor evolution Weighed down by passengers?" Nature Reviews Cancer (2013).
http://www.nature.com/nrc/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nrc3488.html

Christopher McFarland, Leonid Mirny, Kirill S. Korolev. A tug-of-war between driver and passenger mutations in cancer and other adaptive processes.
PNAS 2014 111(42):15138-43. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25277973

complete list at
http://mirnylab.mit.edu/publications/