PhD
Associate Professor, Biology
UNC-Chapel Hill
Cancer Genetics Research Program
Area of Interest
My lab studies the basic mechanisms by which cell fates are established during development and how the memory of these developmental decisions is propagated over time. All research questions in the lab touch upon how packaging of the genome into chromatin affects access to DNA-encoded information. We employ the development of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as an experimental system, combining genetic, genomic, microscopy, and biochemical approaches.
Current projects in the lab focus on the initiation of epigenetic memory at the earliest stages of development. The advantage of this early developmental stage is that there is very little epigenetic information present in chromatin yet, allowing us to make direct causal inferences about the function of histone modifications from mutant phenotypes without complications from indirect effects associated with changes in cell fate that occur at later stages of development.
We are investigating how Polycomb complexes, conserved epigenetic regulators from flies to humans, choose whether or not to repress target genes. Our hypothesis is that histone PTMs installed on chromatin at early stages of embryogenesis signal to Polycomb complexes in a cell-type specific manner, leading to productive epigenetic silencing or a failure to establish a repressive chromatin state. To test this hypothesis, we are developing new methodology to manipulate Polycomb complex function, the activity of an antagonistic epigenetic regulatory complex called Trithorax, and the histone proteins themselves.
