BCBP Seminar: Jill Dowen, PhD

Jill Dowen, PhD | UNC-Chapel Hill

“Genome structure and function in transcriptional control of cellular identity”

This will be a hybrid seminar – in person in Bioinformatics 1131 OR via zoom!

Dr. Dowen is a talented researcher whose work focuses on understanding the link between genome organization and gene expression.  Her studies have investigated how the looping of DNA impacts expression of genes within a cell and how dynamic changes are brought about during normal development as well as in disease processes.  Her lab employs genomics techniques like ChIP-seq, Hi-C, and RNA-seq, as well as CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to investigate mechanisms of transcriptional regulation and control of chromosome structure in embryonic stem cells and cancer cells.  Her work has been well funded (NIH and private foundation grants) and lead to many exciting publications including:

Functional impact of cancer-associated cohesin variants on gene expression and cellular identity. Rittenhouse NL, Carico ZM, Liu YF, Stefan HC, Arruda NL, Zhou J, Dowen JM. Genetics. 2021 Apr15;217(4):iyab025. doi: 10.1093/genetics/iyab025. PMID: 33704438.

A cohesin cancer mutation reveals a role for the hinge domain in genome organization and gene expression. Carico ZM, Stefan HC, Justice M, Yimit A, Dowen JM. PLoS Genetics. 2021 Mar 24;17(3):e1009435. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009435 PMID: 33760811. PMCID: PMC7990204.

Distinct and overlapping roles of STAG1 and STAG2 in cohesin localization and gene expression in embryonic stem cells. Arruda NL, Carico ZM, Justice M, Liu YF, Zhou J, Stefan HC, Dowen JM. Epigenetics & Chromatin. 2020 Aug 10;13(1);32. doi: 10.1186/s13072-020-00353-9. PMCID: PMC7418333

A WIZ/Cohesin/CTCF Complex Anchors DNA Loops to Define Gene Expression and Cell Identity. Justice M, Carico ZM, Stefan HC, Dowen JM. Cell Reports. 2020 Apr 14;31(2):107503. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.03.067. PMCID: PMC7212317

Host: Brian Strahl

About the 2020-21 Fall BCBP Seminar Series

Tuesdays at 11:00 AM, August 24 – November 30, 2021

Seminars are open to those in the triangle area, virtually. Download a copy of our flyer here: 2021 Fall Seminars

We encourage incoming BBSP students to attend the Biochemistry and Biophysics seminars and social events to get to know our people and opportunities. Students do not need to have chosen a rotation in our labs to attend our events. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to visit us. Don’t be shy, stop on by.

Community members and collaborators across campus who are interested in attending our virtual BCBP seminars should contact Holly Shepherd for zoom details.