Charles is a Professor of Biology at the University of Washington, Associate Director for Fragile X Research in the University's Center on Human Development and Disability, and a faculty member in the Department of Genome Sciences. He received his BS from the University of Oregon, and his PhD from Stanford University. Charles was a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin prior to joining the University of Washington in 1971. He has also taught or carried out research at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, the Zoology Institute of the University of Zurich, the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge), The Plant Breeding Institute (Cambridgeshire), the Department of Genetics at Cambridge University, the Zoology Department at University of Bergen, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Most of his laboratory research interests are under Research; his field research activities include Restoration Ecology.
Alice received her BA in Biology, Chemistry, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Colby College in 2003 and has since been working in the Laird Lab. She studies methylation patterns within a promoter region of human LINE-1 (L1) transposable elements. She will begin the MEDEX Northwest Physician Assistant Program at the University of Washington in June 2007.
Megan McCloskey (Research Scientist)
Megan received her BS in Zoology from the University of Washington in 2004. Megan is in the process of publishing her STORCS method, which encodes individual strands of DNA prior to PCR. She currently attends the Sackler Institute at NYU and is working on a PhD in immunology and pathobiology.
The objective of my research is to understand the molecular mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance (mitotic and meiotic) and to study this topic in the context of human disease and ageing. Knowledge of these epigenetic mechanisms is fundamental if we are to understand the aetiology of many complex diseases as well as normal differentiation of stem cells and embryonic development. A diverse set of human syndromes, the use of a mouse model and various cell culture systems allow me to address basic questions of the mechanisms involved in i) establishing, ii) maintaining and iii) reprogramming of epigenetic information, in particular DNA methylation patterns.
Diane joined the Laird Lab as a postdoc in Fall 2005 after completing her Ph.D. with Carl Bergstrom at the University of Washington. In her graduate work, Diane used mathematical modeling to investigate lateral gene transfer, relatedness and antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Here in the Laird Lab, Diane is using a combination of molecular and mathematical techniques to investigate the evolution of epigenetic fidelity in eukaryotes, and the population structure of DNA methylation patterns in populations of somatic cells. Please visit Diane's website to read more about her research and publications.