Kirby ZieglerGrad Student

Kirby Ziegler HeadshotContact

Wishart Lab Start Date: October 2022

Education:
PhD Candidate, Molecular Biology & Genetics, University of Alberta (Expected 2025)
• Initiated as MSc in Experimental Oncology
BSc, Specialization in Bioinformatics (IIP), University of Alberta, 2009

Research Interests:
My research focuses on transcriptional regulation in melanoma and paediatric muscle cancer. I model transcription factor DNA-binding specificity using probabilistic, discriminative, and deep learning methods to predict binding profiles. These sequence-based predictions are subsequently integrated with transcriptomic, epigenomic, and 3D chromatin conformation analyses to investigate how DNA-binding preferences influence gene regulation in cancer. This includes reconstructing enhancer–promoter interactions to functionally annotate regulatory elements and connect binding patterns to transcriptional programs. By combining experimental and computational approaches, my work aims to elucidate the rewiring of transcriptional networks in oncogenic contexts and to advance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying tumour progression.