Bing Ren, PhD

  • Professor of Genetics and Development
  • Professor of Systems Biology
  • Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics

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Overview

Dr. Bing Ren, PhdD, earned his PhD in Biochemistry from Harvard University in 1998 and completed postdoctoral training at the Whitehead Institute in 2001. Before joining Columbia University, he served on the faculty of the University of California, San Diego (2001-2025), was a member of the Ludwig Cancer Research at San Diego (2001-2023), and directed the Center for Epigenomics (2016 – 2025). He has received numerous accolades, including the Chen Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in Human Genetic and Genomic Research, the Ray Wu Award for Outstanding Leadership and Accomplishment in Biomedical Sciences, and election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Academic Appointments

  • Professor of Genetics and Development
  • Professor of Systems Biology
  • Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics

Administrative Titles

  • Associate Director in the Vagelos institute for Basic Biomedical Science
  • Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer New York Genome Center

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • PhD, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Harvard University
  • Fellowship: Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Committees, Societies, Councils

  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Honors & Awards

  • Chen Award, Distinguished Academic Achievement in Human Genetic and Genomic Research
  • Ray Wu Award, Outstanding Leadership and Accomplishment in Biomedical Sciences

Research

As a pioneer in the field of epigenomics, Dr. Bing Ren has devoted his career to unraveling the complexities of gene regulation and chromatin architecture. Dr. Ren’s research has led to fundamental discoveries in gene regulation, including the mapping of millions of regulatory elements within the human genome, elucidation of chromatin organization principles, and the functional interpretation of non-coding disease variants.

Dr. Ren has played a central role in multiple large-scale genomics initiatives, including the ENCODE Project, the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Mapping Consortium, the International Human Epigenome Consortium, and the 4D Nucleome Consortium. His work has significantly advanced our understanding of how epigenetic modifications influence cellular identity and human disease, particularly in neurodegeneration and cancer.

Research Interests

  • Cancer
  • Chromatin Biology
  • Computational and Systems Biology
  • Epigenetics
  • Gene Regulation
  • Genomics
  • Neurodegeneration
  • Neurodegenerative Disease
  • Neuropsychiatric Disease
  • Precision Medicine

Selected Publications

  1. Gorkin DU, Barozzi I, Zhao Y, Zhang Y, Huang H, Lee AY, Li B, Chiou J, Wildberg A, Ding B, Zhang B, Wang M, Strattan JS, Davidson JM, Qiu Y, Afzal V, Akiyama JA, Plajzer-Frick I, Novak CS, Kato M, Garvin TH, Pham QT, Harrington AN, Mannion BJ, Lee EA, Fukuda-Yuzawa Y, He Y, Preissl S, Chee S, Han JY, Williams BA, Trout D, Amrhein H, Yang H, Cherry JM, Wang W, Gaulton K, Ecker JR, Shen Y, Dickel DE, Visel A, Pennacchio LA, Ren B. An atlas of dynamic chromatin landscapes in mouse fetal development. Nature. 2020 Jul;583(7818):744-751
  2. ENCODE Project Consortium; Moore JE, Purcaro MJ, Pratt HE, Epstein CB, Shoresh N, Adrian J, Kawli T, Davis CA, Dobin A, Kaul R, Halow J, Van Nostrand EL, Freese P, Gorkin DU, Shen Y, He Y, Mackiewicz M, Pauli-Behn F, Williams BA, Mortazavi A, Keller CA, Zhang XO, Elhajjajy SI, Huey J, Dickel DE, Snetkova V, Wei X, Wang X, Rivera-Mulia JC, Rozowsky J, Zhang J, Chhetri SB, Zhang J, Victorsen A, White KP, Visel A, Yeo GW, Burge CB, Lécuyer E, Gilbert DM, Dekker J, Rinn J, Mendenhall EM, Ecker JR, Kellis M, Klein RJ, Noble WS, Kundaje A, Guigó R, Farnham PJ, Cherry JM, Myers RM, Ren B, Graveley BR, Gerstein MB, Pennacchio LA, Snyder MP, Bernstein BE, Wold B, Hardison RC, Gingeras TR, Stamatoyannopoulos JA, Weng Z. Expanded encyclopaedias of DNA elements in the human and mouse genomes. Nature. 2020 Jul;583(7818):699-710. (*co-corresponding author)
  3. You Q, Cheng AY, Gu X, Harada BT, Yu M, Wu T, Ren B, Ouyang Z, He C. Direct DNA crosslinking with CAP-C uncovers transcription-dependent chromatin organization at high resolution. Nat Biotechnol. 2021 Feb;39(2):225-235. (*co-corresponding author)
  4. Yan J, Qiu Y, Ribeiro Dos Santos AM, Yin Y, Li YE, Vinckier N, Nariai N, Benaglio P, Raman A, Li X, Fan S, Chiou J, Chen F, Frazer KA, Gaulton KJ, Sander M, Taipale J, Ren B. Systematic analysis of binding of transcription factors to noncoding variants. Nature. 2021 Mar;591(7848):147-151. (*co-corresponding author)
  5. Kubo N, Ishii H, Xiong X, Bianco S, Meitinger F, Hu R, Hocker JD, Conte M, Gorkin D, Yu M, Li B, Dixon JR, Hu M, Nicodemi M, Zhao H, Ren B. Promoter-proximal CTCF binding promotes distal enhancer-dependent gene activation. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2021 Feb;28(2):152-161.
  6. Zhu C, Zhang Y, Li YE, Lucero J, Behrens MM, Ren B. Joint profiling of histone modifications and transcriptome in single cells from mouse brain. Nat Methods. 2021 Mar;18(3):283-292.
  7. Fang R, Preissl S, Li Y, Hou X, Lucero J, Wang X, Motamedi A, Shiau AK, Zhou X, Xie F, Mukamel EA, Zhang K, Zhang Y, Behrens MM, Ecker JR, Ren B. Comprehensive analysis of single cell ATAC-seq data with SnapATAC. Nat Commun. 2021 Feb 26;12(1):1337.
  8. Hocker JD, Poirion OB, Zhu F, Buchanan J, Zhang K, Chiou J, Wang TM, Zhang Q, Hou X, Li YE, Zhang Y, Farah EN, Wang A, McCulloch AD, Gaulton KJ, Ren B, Chi NC, Preissl S. Cardiac cell type-specific gene regulatory programs and disease risk association. Sci Adv. 2021 May 14;7(20):eabf1444. (*co-corresponding author)
  9. Huang H, Zhu Q, Jussila A, Han Y, Bintu B, Kern C, Conte M, Zhang Y, Bianco S, Chiariello AM, Yu M, Hu R, Tastemel M, Juric I, Hu M, Nicodemi M, Zhuang X, Ren B. CTCF mediates dosage- and sequence-context-dependent transcriptional insulation by forming local chromatin domains. Nat Genet. 2021 Jul;53(7):1064-1074.
  10. Yu M, Abnousi A, Zhang Y, Li G, Lee L, Chen Z, Fang R, Lagler TM, Yang Y, Wen J, Sun Q, Li Y, Ren B, Hu M. SnapHiC: a computational pipeline to identify chromatin loops from single-cell Hi-C data. Nat Methods. 2021 Sep;18(9):1056-1059. (*co-corresponding author)
  11. BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN). A multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex. Nature. 2021 Oct;598(7879):86-102.
  12. Li YE, Preissl S, Hou X, Zhang Z, Zhang K, Qiu Y, Poirion OB, Li B, Chiou J, Liu H, Pinto-Duarte A, Kubo N, Yang X, Fang R, Wang X, Han JY, Lucero J, Yan Y, Miller M, Kuan S, Gorkin D, Gaulton KJ, Shen Y, Nunn M, Mukamel EA, Behrens MM, Ecker JR, Ren B. An atlas of gene regulatory elements in adult mouse cerebrum. Nature. 2021 Oct;598(7879):129-136.
  13. Zhang K, Hocker JD, Miller M, Hou X, Chiou J, Poirion OB, Qiu Y, Li YE, Gaulton KJ, Wang A, Preissl S, Ren B. A single-cell atlas of chromatin accessibility in the human genome. Cell. 2021 Nov 24;184(24):5985-6001.e19.
  14. Zhang Y, Amaral ML, Zhu C, Grieco SF, Hou X, Lin L, Buchanan J, Tong L, Preissl S, Xu X, Ren B. Single-cell epigenome analysis reveals age-associated decay of heterochromatin domains in excitatory neurons in the mouse brain. Cell Res. 2022 Nov;32(11):1008-1021.
  15. Chen PB, Fiaux PC, Zhang K, Li B, Kubo N, Jiang S, Hu R, Rooholfada E, Wu S, Wang M, Wang W, McVicker G, Mischel PS, Ren B. Systematic discovery and functional dissection of enhancers needed for cancer cell fitness and proliferation. Cell Rep. 2022 Nov 8;41(6):111630.
  16. Jia BB, Jussila A, Kern C, Zhu Q, Ren B. A spatial genome aligner for resolving chromatin architectures from multiplexed DNA FISH. Nat Biotechnol. 2023 Jul;41(7):1004-1017.
  17. Raviram R, Raman A, Preissl S, Ning J, Wu S, Koga T, Zhang K, Brennan CW, Zhu C, Luebeck J, Van Deynze K, Han JY, Hou X, Ye Z, Mischel AK, Li YE, Fang R, Baback T, Mugford J, Han CZ, Glass CK, Barr CL, Mischel PS, Bafna V, Escoubet L, Ren B, Chen CC. Integrated analysis of single-cell chromatin state and transcriptome identified common vulnerability despite glioblastoma heterogeneity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 May 16;120(20):e2210991120.
  18. Xie Y, Zhu C, Wang Z, Tastemel M, Chang L, Li YE, Ren B. Droplet-based single-cell joint profiling of histone modifications and transcriptomes. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2023 Oct;30(10):1428-1433.
  19. Li YE, Preissl S, Miller M, Johnson ND, Wang Z, Jiao H, Zhu C, Wang Z, Xie Y, Poirion O, Kern C, Pinto-Duarte A, Tian W, Siletti K, Emerson N, Osteen J, Lucero J, Lin L, Yang Q, Zhu Q, Zemke N, Espinoza S, Yanny AM, Nyhus J, Dee N, Casper T, Shapovalova N, Hirschstein D, Hodge RD, Linnarsson S, Bakken T, Levi B, Keene CD, Shang J, Lein E, Wang A, Behrens MM, Ecker JR, Ren B. A comparative atlas of single-cell chromatin accessibility in the human brain. Science. 2023 Oct 13;382(6667):eadf7044.
  20. Zu S, Li YE, Wang K, Armand EJ, Mamde S, Amaral ML, Wang Y, Chu A, Xie Y, Miller M, Xu J, Wang Z, Zhang K, Jia B, Hou X, Lin L, Yang Q, Lee S, Li B, Kuan S, Liu H, Zhou J, Pinto-Duarte A, Lucero J, Osteen J, Nunn M, Smith KA, Tasic B, Yao Z, Zeng H, Wang Z, Shang J, Behrens MM, Ecker JR, Wang A, Preissl S, Ren B. Single-cell analysis of chromatin accessibility in the adult mouse brain. Nature. 2023 Dec;624(7991):378-389.
  21. Zemke NR, Armand EJ, Wang W, Lee S, Zhou J, Li YE, Liu H, Tian W, Nery JR, Castanon RG, Bartlett A, Osteen JK, Li D, Zhuo X, Xu V, Chang L, Dong K, Indralingam HS, Rink JA, Xie Y, Miller M, Krienen FM, Zhang Q, Taskin N, Ting J, Feng G, McCarroll SA, Callaway EM, Wang T, Lein ES, Behrens MM, Ecker JR, Ren B. Conserved and divergent gene regulatory programs of the mammalian neocortex. Nature. 2023 Dec;624(7991):390-402.
  22. Zhang K, Zemke NR, Armand EJ, Ren B. A fast, scalable and versatile tool for analysis of single-cell omics data. Nat Methods. 2024 Feb;21(2):217-227.
  23. Kubo N, Chen PB, Hu R, Ye Z, Sasaki H, Ren B. H3K4me1 facilitates promoter-enhancer interactions and gene activation during embryonic stem cell differentiation. Mol Cell. 2024 May 2;84(9):1742-1752.e5.
  24. Chang L, Xie Y, Taylor B, Wang Z, Sun J, Armand EJ, Mishra S, Xu J, Tastemel M, Lie A, Gibbs ZA, Indralingam HS, Tan TM, Bejar R, Chen CC, Furnari FB, Hu M, Ren B. Droplet Hi-C enables scalable, single-cell profiling of chromatin architecture in heterogeneous tissues. Nat Biotechnol. 2024 Oct 18.
  25. Yu M, Zemke NR, Chen Z, Juric I, Hu R, Raviram R, Abnousi A, Fang R, Zhang Y, Gorkin DU, Li YE, Zhao Y, Lee L, Mishra S, Schmitt AD, Qiu Y, Dickel DE, Visel A, Pennacchio LA, Hu M, Ren B. Integrative analysis of the 3D genome and epigenome in mouse embryonic tissues. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2025 Mar;32(3):479-490.

For a complete list of publications, please visit PubMed.gov