Ofir Hakim is assistant professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences of Bar-Ilan University in Israel. His interest in understanding how biological information is encoded in the epigenome arose during his PhD studies in Tel Aviv University, studying regulation of chromatin structure in plants. Since all biological processes are essentially three dimensional, he realized that complete understanding of how genomes are regulated must incorporate measurements of chromatin folding. In 2006 he moved to the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, where he pioneered molecular genomic and high throughput microscopy technologies to study nuclear high-order structure and function. In 2012 he joined Bar-Ilan University and established a multidisciplinary research group combining molecular and computational biology for understanding how genetic programs are regulated by the 3D epigenome in differentiation, immunology, cancer and plant development. His interest in understanding how biological information is encoded in the epigenome arose during his PhD studies in Tel Aviv University focusing on understanding how polycomb complexes are recruited to their genomic target loci to compact chromatin and suppress gene expression in plants. As the realization that most chromatin regulators and transcription factors are bound far away from genes began to emerge, This strongly suggested that the view of the genome in a linear fashion is highly over simplified. Throughout my scientific career I have been fascinated by how biological information is encoded in the epigenome. In my graduate studies with Dr. Nir Ohad at the Tel Aviv University I used biochemical, molecular, genetic and imaging approaches to elucidate the mechanism by which polycomb complexes are recruited to their genomic target loci to compact the chromatin and suppress gene expression. Around that time, mounting studies indicated that most chromatin regulators and transcription factors are bound far away from any annotated gene. This strongly suggested that the view of the genome in a linear fashion is highly over simplified. During my postdoctoral research with Dr. Gordon Hager, I focused on understanding how the genome is organized in the cell nucleus and how this architecture is related to nuclear function. To discern nuclear architecture properties both at the global and at the single cell levels, I have combined the novel genome-wide chromosome conformation capture (4C), with high throughput imaging. I have further optimized these methodologies to allow a more cost-effective and rigorous sampling. One of my research interests is to understand how transcription is regulated on different time scales. I have therefore studied the short-time transcription response to hormone-activated glucocorticoid receptor and the progression of transcription programs during T lymphocytes differentiation. My recent work has contributed to our understanding of the interplay between nuclear architecture and transcription factor action in regulating gene transcription. These findings have challenged the long-standing transcription-centric models for nuclear architecture and suggest that transcription factor binding is the dominant player in shaping a functional nucleus.