Your DNA may be a string of code, but it’s also made of shapes that twist and fold. By combining math and biology, UC Davis researchers are able to predict R-loops, tiny structures that influence gene expression and even diseases like cancer.

Knots are a part of nature. From pocketed headphones to carelessly packed garden hoses, they find ways to manifest in strings and loops. This isn’t just a truth of mathematics; it’s a truth of biology. In fact, DNA molecules can also get tied into knots.

To democratize the precision medicine space, the Henn Lab is spearheading two projects funded by the National Institutes of Health for nearly $812,000.

The study of our ever-shifting, tangle of a genome is called topology. Javier Arsuaga harnesses this area of mathematics in tandem with machine learning and computational modeling to investigate how diseases, like breast cancer, spread.