Epigenomics of Development and Disease
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Please check back as we continue to develop the website content for the epigenetics working group at UND.
History
Our epigenetics research working group has been meeting regularly since 2010 and has grown to include approximately twenty laboratories from three departments in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, as well as talented scientists from the College of Nursing, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center. Most of the epigenetics group members are early career investigators or those with established research programs in other fields whose research has led them to the exciting area of epigenetics/epigenomics research. In addition to the five junior investigators who would receive project support through our pending COBRE: Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in the Epigenomics of Development and Disease, this working group includes several well-established federally-funded investigators with expertise in cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, auto-immune disorders, and aging. The more established members of the group will serve as collaborators, mentors, and on the Internal Advisory Board to support the Center generally, and more specifically to assist the junior investigators with all aspects of our mission. Since 2010, members of our epigenetics group have submitted several collaborative RO1 and R21 proposals to the NIH and to various private foundations. Furthermore, our first collaborative epigenetics manuscript was published in December 2011, and additional manuscripts are in preparation. Thus, although the group is in its formative stages, we have already achieved measurable successes and have secured the enthusiastic support of senior investigators and administration.
Research Interests
Featured Epigenetics Articles
Featured UND Investigator
Sergei Nechaev, PhD was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology in January 2012. UNDSMHS recruited Dr. Nechaev from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at NIH in North Carolina, where he was a postdoctoral researcher for five years. Dr. Nechaev earned his doctorate from the State Research Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms, Moscow, Russia.
Dr. Nechaev in the Project Leader for Project 1 of our proposed COBRE Center investigating the roles of RNA polymerase II pausing as a dynamic epigenetic mark during neural stem cell differentiation.
His pioneering work on RNA polymerase II pausing has resulted in a 2010 Science publication: Global Analysis of Short RNAs Reveals Widespread Promoter-Proximal Stalling and Arrest of Pol II in Drosophila.
In his spare time, Sergei enjoys mushroom hunting and cross country skiing, depending on the season.
Announcements
- Congratulations to Dr. Joyce Ohm for receiving her first NIH R01 grant for a total of $1,552,500; titled ""Environmental Toxins and Stem Cell Epigenetic Remodeling". Other UND investigators who will collaborate with Dr. Ohm on this grant are Drs. Kurt Zhang, Brij Singh and John Watt.
- Congratulations to Drs. Sergei Nechaev and Archana Dhasarathy for successfully competing for a ND EpSCOR 2012 Equipment grant to purchase a state of the art Covaris Sonicator. This grant entitled Epigenetic Mechanisms of Cell Differentiation was for a total of $46,600 to purchase a Covaris S220 Adaptive Focused Acoustics Ultrasonicator. This instrument will be extraordinarily useful for anyone in the epigenetics working group looking to fragment RNA, DNA, or crosslinked chromatin prior to ChIP, next generation sequencing, or other downstream applications. For training and instrument access, please contact Dr. Nechaev.
Epigenetics Links
Epigenetics COBRE I Sharepoint site (password protected, contact Joyce if you need access)
NIH Epigenomics Roadmap Project
The NIH R01 toolkit has useful information and additional links
Epigenie - Epigenetics news and resources
Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) Bioinformatics Resources 6.7 - Useful for annotating genome data and pathway analysis
Jim Bone's Chromatin Page lists chromatin researchers, has announcements of meetings and postdoc positions.
Histone antibodies that are good to use:
Methprimer: design primers for bisulfite sequencing or MSP
The histone modifications App: easily check up on roles of different histone modifications