Dr. Ljungman has a long-standing interest in carcinogenesis, radiation biology, DNA damage responses and regulation of transcription. A major goal of the lab is to elucidate basic mechanisms that ultimately could help better understand human diseases and in the development of improved therapeutics. The Ljungman lab has developed the Bru-seq technology platform to assess nascent RNA synthesis and stability in cells as well as splicing kinetics, transcription elongation rates and the mapping of transcription start sites and enhancers. These techniques provide novel information about the transcription process that cannot be obtained with traditional steady-state RNA-based approaches. The Ljungman lab is participating in ENCODE 4 as a Mapping Center.

With the Bru-seq technology platform, the Ljungman lab are exploring many basic biological pathways involved in DNA damage and repair, acute cellular responses, epigenetics, differentiation, aging, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and autism. They are also collaborating with medicinal chemists to interrogate mechanisms of action of novel therapeutic drugs and are developing specific inhibitors of the RNA exosome as cancer therapeutic drugs. With the Bru-seq techniques, the Ljungman lab collaborates with many labs at the university and from over 10 different countries. The Ljungman lab has also developed a CRISPR-based precision approach called "KLIPP" for specific targeting of cancer cells without affecting normal cells. The CRISPR reagents will target structural variants that are unique to the tumor cells.