Elizabeth Read, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California Irvine, "Function of an epigenetic switch: Insights from statistical inference and biophysical modeling"
Speaker:
Elizabeth Read, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
University of California Irvine
Student Host: Zsofia Szegletes
Title: Function of an epigenetic switch: Insights from statistical inference and biophysical modeling
Abstract:
DNA methylation is a ubiquitous epigenetic mark. In concert with other epigenetic mechanisms, DNA methylation helps to accomplish disparate tasks in mammalian genomes. On the one hand, genome-wide methylation patterns help establish and maintain distinct cell types, and these patterns must be stably maintained. On the other hand, DNA methylation in certain loci drives nimble epigenetic switches that help to switch gene expression on or off in response to environmental stimuli. This talk will discuss our efforts combining stochastic biophysical modeling with data-driven statistical approaches, in order to shed light on the enzymatic mechanisms that enable the mammalian DNA methylation system to accomplish these disparate tasks. Broadly, I propose that combining “bottom-up” and “top-down” modeling of the epigenome has exciting implications for epigenetic therapies.
Bio:
Elizabeth Read is Associate Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. She holds undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics from the University of Colorado and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. During her PhD studies, Prof. Read became fascinated by stochastic processes in cell biology, and this topic continues to be a major theme underpinning work in her research group. Prof. Read is an active member of the UC Irvine Center for Complex Biological Systems and serves on the Executive Committee of the Mathematical and Computational Systems Biology graduate program. She is PI of the NSF “Finding Your Inner Modeler” Research Coordination Network, which brings together cell biologists and computational modelers.
