Job Dekker

Job Dekker invented chromosome conformation capture (3C) technology and its genome-wide derivative Hi-C, enabling the first comprehensive maps of three-dimensional genome organization that revealed topologically associating domains (TADs) as fundamental units of chromatin architecture. His laboratory demonstrated that TAD boundaries function as insulation elements preventing inappropriate enhancer-promoter contacts, and that disruption of TAD boundaries in cancer can activate oncogenes through enhancer hijacking. He has mapped how 3D genome organization is altered across cancer types, revealing structural variants that rewire gene regulatory landscapes. His technologies have become the foundation for understanding how nuclear architecture contributes to cancer gene dysregulation.