The Barthel Laboratory studies how telomere dysfunction drives structural genome evolution and shapes the molecular trajectory of cancer. Based at TGen in Phoenix, Arizona, we combine cytogenetics and molecular biology with long-read sequencing, chromatin and 3D-genome assays, and computational genomics. Two methods we developed in-house anchor the work: Telomere-C for mapping the telomeric chromatin interactome, and KaryoScope for k-mer-based, alignment-free genome annotation. Together these resolve repetitive and structurally complex regions of the genome that conventional pipelines miss. We work primarily on diffuse glioma and other solid tumors, with a clinical interest in monitoring therapy response through circulating tumor DNA.
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