Genomic imprinting and the epigenetic control of genome function

Regulation of gene expression is in part controlled by epigenetic modifications that place DNA in its functional chromosome context. Unlike the DNA sequence, these modifications can change in response to the normal environments that cells are exposed to and influence genome function. Professor Ferguson-Smith will apply knowledge of genomic imprinting (an epigenetic process causing genes to be expressed according to which parent they are inherited from) to study the relationship between the DNA and the epigenetic modifications that regulate it. Experiments will explore how the epigenetic code controls gene expression, how epigenetic states are maintained or change during development, and how a developing organism’s normal or abnormal environment affects gene expression, with implications for health and disease.