Alexander Eckehart Urban

Biography

Alexander Eckehart Urban is Assistant Professor of the Department of Genetics. The Urban Lab investigates the effects of variation in human genomes on normal and abnormal brain development and function.

Research Interest

He has over a decade’s worth of experience in developing and applying high-throughput and high-resolution genomics analysis tools and procedures, in particular in the context of studying genomic sequence variation in brain development and function. He has been involved on numerous occasions in using a large-scale and high-throughput setup for genomics analyses as well as carrying out analyses over several levels of genomics and epigenomics information. This includes participation in the ENCODE and 1000 Genomes projects, for the latter as a member of both the analytical and structural variation groups. He has experience with developing and applying state-of-the-art and emerging genomics and epigenomics technologies (array and next-generation-sequencing based) for the analysis of gene expression, genomic DNA sequence and structure, DNA methylation and chromatin modification, in human cells and human cell culture systems, including stem cell culture models. Two main, and connected, directions of research in his laboratory are the investigation of the molecular effects of large genome variants during neuronal development using iPSC model systems and the study of the nature and effects of somatic genome variation in the brain using tissue culture models and primary tissue samples.