Wolf Reik

Wolf Reik FRS[1] is a molecular biologist, senior group leader and associate director at the Babraham Institute, professor of Epigenetics at the University of Cambridge and associate faculty at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.[2][3][4]

Wolf Reik
Wolf Reik
NationalityGerman
AwardsEMBO Member
FMedSci
FRS
Scientific career
Fieldsepigenetics
InstitutionsBabraham Institute
University of Cambridge,
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Websitewww.babraham.ac.uk/our-research/epigenetics/wolf-reik

Career and research

Wolf Reik studies how additional information can be added to the genome through a range of processes collectively called epigenetics. He discovered some of the key epigenetic mechanisms important for mammalian development, physiology, genome reprogramming, and human diseases. His early work led to the discovery that the molecular mechanism of genomic imprinting is based on DNA methylation.[5] He uncovered non-coding RNA[6] and chromatin looping[7] regulating imprinted genes, which he showed to be involved in fetal nutrition, growth, and disease.[8] He discovered epigenetic reprogramming, including active demethylation, and showed that it was faulty in reproductive cloning and affects pluripotency of embryonic stem cells.[9] He found that the environment influences epigenetic programming in embryos, with changes in gene expression persisting in adults and their offspring.

Awards and honours

Wolf Reik has received many awards, including:

See also

References
  1. Anon (2010). "Wolf Reik's FRS". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
  2. "Wolf Reik's group". babraham.ac.uk. Babraham Institute.
  3. "Wolf Reik at the Sanger". sanger.ac.uk. Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
  4. Wolf Reik publications indexed by Google Scholar
  5. Reik W, Collick A, Norris ML, Barton SC, Surani MA (1987) Genomic imprinting determines methylation of parental alleles in transgenic mice. Nature 328, 248-251
  6. Smits G, Mungall AJ, Griffiths-Jones S, Smith P, Beury D, Matthews L, Rogers J, Pask AJ, Shaw G, VandeBerg JL, McCarrey JR, Renfree MB, Reik W, DunhamI (2008) Conservation of the H19 noncoding RNA and H19-IGF2 imprinting mechanism in therians. Nature Genetics 40, 971-976
  7. Murrell A, Heeson S, Reik W (2004) Interaction between differentially methylated regions partitions the imprinted genes Igf2 and H19 into parent-specific chromatin loops. Nature genetics 36, 889-893
  8. Constância, Miguel; Hemberger, Myriam; Hughes, Jennifer; Dean, Wendy; Ferguson-Smith, Anne; Fundele, Reinald; Stewart, Francesca; Kelsey, Gavin; Fowden, Abigail; Sibley, Colin; Reik, Wolf (2002). "Placental-specific IGF-II is a major modulator of placental and fetal growth". Nature. 417 (6892): 945–948. doi:10.1038/nature00819. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 12087403. (subscription required)
  9. Reik W, Dean W, Walter J (2001) Epigenetic reprogramming in mammalian development. Science 293, 1089-1093
  10. "Wolf Reik's page at Academia Europeae". Ae-info.org. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.