Research in the Wysocka laboratory focuses on how regulatory information encoded in the genome is interpreted by the transcriptional machinery and chromatin environment to generate form and function during human development and evolution. Joanna Wysocka is widely recognized for her contributions to understanding gene-regulatory mechanisms that underlie stem cell function, cellular plasticity, and differentiation. Among her group’s most influential discoveries are the identification of chromatin signatures associated with active and primed enhancers; the development of new methods to visualize and perturb cis-regulatory elements and trans-acting factors in living cells; and mechanistic insights into how quantitative changes in gene expression—arising from cis- or trans-regulatory variation—shape human evolution, individual diversity, and disease. For example, Wysocka has used facial progenitor cells, called Cranial Neural Crest Cells (CNCCs), as a paradigm to study how genetic information harbored by the regulatory elements is decoded into a diversity of molecular functions, cellular behaviors and complex morphologies that make our faces both distinctly human and uniquely individual. She has also examined how perturbations in the gene regulatory processes lead to craniofacial diseases, which are among the most common human congenital malformations. Beyond the face, she has been studying molecular underpinnings of other human traits, including pigmentation and speech and language. In parallel, Wysocka has been exploring the role of transposable elements and other genomic ‘dark matter’ in mediating human- and primate-specific features of early development. 

Wysocka’s work has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Searle Scholar Award, W. M. Keck Foundation Distinguished Young Scholar Award, International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Outstanding Young Investigator Award, Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, and ISSCR Momentum Award. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018, to the National Academy of Sciences in 2024, and as an EMBO International Member in 2019.