Research
Research summary
As a member of the Gavin Kelsey laboratory, my primary research interest is to understand how DNA methylation marks are established in the female germ line and what is the impact of such marks on early-embryo development. I am particularly interested in the role of transcription in DNA methylation establishment at the imprinted gene Zac1 gDMR, and the physiological consequences of Zac1 loss-of-methylation and bi-allelic expression.
Funding: MRC
Publications
1) Smallwood SA, Tomizawa S, Krueger F, Ruf N, Carli N, Segonds-Pichon A, Sato S, Hata K, Andrews SR, Kelsey G. Dynamic CpG island methylation landscape in oocytes and preimplantation embryos. Nat Genet. 2011 Jun 26;43(8):811-4.
2) Chotalia M, Smallwood SA, Ruf N, Dawson C, Lucifero D, Frontera M, James K, Dean W, Kelsey G. Transcription is required for establishment of germline methylation marks at imprinted genes. Genes Dev. 2009 Jan 1;23(1):105-17.
3) Smallwood SA, Kelsey G. De novo DNA methylation: a germ cell perspective. Trends Genet. 2012 Jan;28(1):33-42. Epub 2011 Oct 21. PMID: 22019337 [PubMed - in process]