One of the main goals of the research carried out in the Bach lab is to understand mechanisms controlling gene expression during mammalian embryogenesis. The research investigates how the dynamic regulation of transcription factor activity orchestrates cell fate decisions during development and how disturbances can lead to human disease. More recently, the lab also studies how female cells inactivate one of their two X chromosomes in a process called X-chromosome inactivation (XCI), a form of epigenetic gene silencing.