Maximilian Billmann

We explore how genes interact in networks to regulate cells. We are particularly interested to learn how such functional interactions respond to environmental changes and how this functional capacity is impacted by disease-associated genetic variants. To this end, we develop computational methods to infer mechanistic cues from of large-scale perturbation data such as the Cancer Dependency Map (DepMap), single-cell-based CRISPR experiments, the currently ongoing human Genetic Interaction Network (GIN) or tissue type-resolved expression atlases. Our methods aim at understanding and utilizing different types of perturbation data, improving data reproducibility and guide experimental efforts to maximize the information gain towards a DepMap that covers genetic, environmental and phenotypic complexity of a cancer cell.

Relevant Publications

• Varland S, Silva RD, Kjosas I, Faustino A, Bogaert A, Billmann M, Boukhatmi H, Kellen B, Costanzo M, Drazic A, Osberg C, Chan K, Zhang X, Tong AHY, Andreazza S, Lee JJ, Nedyalkova L, Usaj M, Whitworth AJ, Andrews BJ, Moffat J, Myers CL, Gevaert K, Boone C, Martinho RG, Arnesen T. N-terminal acetylation shields proteins from degradation and promotes age-dependent motility and longevity. Nature Communications (2023)
• Hassan AZ, Ward HN, Rahman M, Billmann M, Lee Y, Myers CL. Dimensionality reduction methods for extracting functional networks from large-scale CRISPR screens. Molecular Systems Biology (2023)
• Billmann M+, Ward HN, Aregger M, Costanzo M, Andrews B, Boone C, Moffat J & Myers CL. Reproducibility metrics for CRISPR screens. Cell Systems (2023). +Corresponding author
• Rahman M*, Billmann M*,+, Costanzo M, Aregger M, Tong AHY, Chan K, Ward HN, Brown KR, Andrews B, Boone C, Moffat J & Myers CL. Major functional bias for mitochondrial complexes in genome-wide CRISPR screens. Molecular Systems Biology (2021). *These authors contributed equally, +Corresponding author
• Aregger M*, Lawson K*, Billmann M*, Costanzo M, Tong AHY, Chan K, Rahman M, Brown KR, Ross C, Usaj M, Nedyalkova L, Sizova O, Habsid A, Pawling J, Lin YZ, Abdouni H, Weiss A, Mero P, Dennis JW, Gingras AC, Myers CL, Andrews B, Boone C & Moffat J. Systematic mapping of genetic interactions for de novo fatty acid synthesis. Nature Metabolism (2020). *These authors contributed equally”,
• Gonatopoulos-Pourzatzis T, Aregger M, Brown KR, Farhangmehr S, Braunschweig U, Ward H, Ha K, Weiss A, Billmann M, Durbic T, Myers CL, Blencowe B & Moffat J. Systematic multi-site genomic editing using a CRISPR-Cas platform reveals gene paralog interactions and essential alternative exons. Nature Biotechnology (2020)
• Billmann M, Chaudhary V, ElMaghraby M, Fischer B and Boutros M. Widespread rewiring of genetic networks upon cancer signaling pathway activation. Cell Systems (2018)
• Costanzo M, VanderSluis B, Koch EN, Baryshnikova A, Pons C, Tan G, Wang W, Usaj M, Hanchard J, Lee SD, Pelechano V, Styles EB, Billmann M, van Leeuwen J, van Dyk N, Lin ZY, Kuzmin E, Nelson J, Piotrowski JS, Srikumar T, Bahr S, Chen Y, Deshpande R, Kurat CF, Li SC, Li Z, Usaj MM, Okada H, Pascoe N, San Luis BJ, Sharifpoor S, Shuteriqi E, Simpkins SW, Snider J, Suresh HG, Tan Y, Zhu H, Malod-Dognin N, Janjic V, Przulj N, Troyanskaya OG, Stagljar I, Xia T, Ohya Y, Gingras AC, Raught B, Boutros M, Steinmetz LM, Moore CL, Rosebrock AP, Caudy AA, Myers CL, Andrews B, Boone C. A global genetic interaction network maps a wiring diagram of cellular function. Science (2016)”,
• Billmann M*, Horn T*, Fischer B, Sandmann T, Huber W and Boutros M. A genetic interaction map of cell cycle modulators. Mol. Biol. Cell (2016). *These authors contributed equally
• Fischer B*, Sandmann T*, Horn T*, Billmann M*, Chaudhary V, Huber W and Boutros M. A directed, epistatic map of chromatin biology and signal transduction in a metazoan cell. Elife (2015). *These authors contributed equally