Antoine Hocher

Antoine Hocher is a Fellow at the University of Cambridge, affiliated with the School of Biological Sciences and the Department of Genetics. His research focuses on evolution, mimicry, chromatin, and phylogenetics. He combines computational biology, phylogenetics, molecular biology, and directed evolution to study constraints related to DNA as a genetic information carrier and to engineer new DNA-binding and DNA-mimicking proteins. His work explores existing systems and aims to develop novel proteins with specific DNA interactions.

Antoine Hocher's research focuses on chromatin evolution and synthetic biology, with an emphasis on understanding the structural and functional roles of chromatin in archaea and bacteria. His work explores how chromatin components, such as histones and histone variants, contribute to genome organization, stability, and regulation across diverse organisms. Hocher investigates the evolution of chromatin complexity, including the adaptation of histone-like proteins in archaea and their potential applications in synthetic biology. His studies also examine the interplay between chromatin structure and cellular processes such as recombination, telomere dynamics, and genome maintenance. By integrating molecular biology and bioinformatics, Hocher contributes to the broader understanding of chromatin's role in prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems.