Irina is a PhD student researching transcription factor-DNA interactions in the Department of Chemical and Structural Biology at the Weizmann Institute, under the supervision of Dr. Ariel Afek. She obtained her joint BSc and MSc in Biology at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In her research, Irina aims to understand the direct role of epigenetics on the regulation of transcription factor binding to DNA, which is a key step in regulation of gene expression. Currently, she is combining a novel quantitative high throughput platform and lower throughput assays to explore the impact of cytosine modifications, such as 5mC and 5hmC, on the binding specificity of multiple human transcription factors. Ultimately, this knowledge can provide new insights on how epigenetics shape the gene regulation landscape.