Massachusetts Institute of Technology · EngineeringHansen Lab
Anders Sejr Hansen · Cambridge, Massachusetts
Research Focus
Professor Anders Sejr Hansen's lab at MIT focuses on understanding how transcription factors (TFs) locate their specific binding sites on DNA within the crowded environment of the cell nucleus. They utilize advanced microscopy techniques that track single molecules in real-time, allowing them to observe TF behavior at an incredibly high resolution. This research has implications for synthetic biology and cancer, especially in understanding how mutations in TFs may contribute to disease.
transcription factorsgene expression regulationmicroscopysingle-molecule trackingcancer biologysynthetic biologypluripotency3D diffusionDNA binding
Research Aims
5AIM 01Resolve how transcription factors efficiently locate specific DNA binding sites in the nucleus.
AIM 02Develop novel computational methods to analyze single-molecule tracking data.
AIM 03Investigate the role of transcription factors in pluripotency and genome structure.
AIM 04Uncover the oncogenic potential of fusion transcription factors in cancer.
AIM 05Design synthetic transcription factors with tunable search properties.
Skills the Lab Values
advanced microscopy techniquessingle-molecule trackinghigh-resolution imagingdata analysis with computational methodscell culturebehavioral assays in live cellsDNA manipulationfluorescence imagingexperimental designbioinformatics
Output against the department
Publications130bottom 30% of dept.195th of 278
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations8.0ktop 47% of dept.130th of 278
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.