Epigenetic Memory: Understanding how epigenetic information is transmitted and changed during normal development and in disease

Our team examines how cellular identity is established, progressively changed during differentiation and then transmitted through cell division.

Understanding how epigenetic information is transmitted from mother to daughter cells during cell division is critical for understanding inherited function as well as for manipulating cell fate for therapeutic benefit.

We also study how environment exposures, including those encountered in utero during pregnancy, can impact the developing epigenome and thereby influence the health of offspring throughout their lifespan and across generations.

To do this we generated bespoke bioluminescent imaging models that allow the allelic expression of genes to be continuously monitored in vivo within living organisms.

This provides novel preclinical models for certain diseases, as well as allowing the epigenetic consequences of environmental challenges (and drugs) encountered during pregnancy to be better understood.