Emma Whitelaw

Last updated

Emma Whitelaw
Awards International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Jubilee Medal
Scientific career
Fields Molecular biologist

Emma Whitelaw FAA is an eminent molecular biologist and NHMRC Australia Fellow at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and is among Australia's leading researchers of epigenetics [ according to whom? ]. Whitelaw was the first to demonstrate epigenetic inheritance in mammals. [1] She now currently works at La Trobe University in Australia.

Contents

Biography

Whitelaw performed undergraduate studies at the Australian National University and obtained her D.Phil. from University of Oxford. [2] She has worked for 15 years in London and Oxford, and since 1991 in Australia. [2] She heads the Department of Population Studies and Human Genetics, dedicated to the study of epigenetics and mammalian gene expression, at Queensland Institute of Medical Research. [3]

Work

Whitelaw has worked extensively on the control of gene expression in higher eukaryotes. In 1999 Whitelaw, together with her co-workers made the first-ever demonstration of epigenetic inheritance in mammals. [4]

Awards

In 2008, Whitelaw was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Australia Fellowship and in 2011 she became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. [5] In 2011, she received the Jubilee Medal from the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for work on the transgenerational inheritance of epigenetic marks. [6]

Related Research Articles

Robin Holliday was a British molecular biologist. Holliday described a mechanism of DNA-strand exchange that attempted to explain gene-conversion events that occur during meiosis in fungi. That model first proposed in 1964 and is now known as the Holliday Junction.

Nicholas Gordon Martin is an Australian behavior geneticist who has published over 1300 peer-reviewed articles on topics including the heritability of religion and intelligence and medical disorders such as endometriosis. Martin is among the most cited medical scientists in the Southern Hemisphere, with a number of citation classics including "Genes, culture and personality: An empirical approach" that he co-authored with Lindon Eaves and Hans Eysenck, "Analysis of the p16 gene (CDKN2) as a candidate for the chromosome 9p melanoma susceptibility locus" (Nature, and "Genetic and environmental contributions to alcohol dependence risk in a national twin sample".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geneticist</span> Biologist who studies genetics and performs general research on genetic technologies and processes

A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processes or develop genetic technologies to aid in the pharmaceutical or and agriculture industries. Some geneticists perform experiments in model organisms such as Drosophila, C. elegans, zebrafish, rodents or humans and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of biological traits. A basic science geneticist is a scientist who usually has earned a PhD in genetics and undertakes research and/or lectures in the field. A medical geneticist is a physician who has been trained in medical genetics as a specialization and evaluates, diagnoses, and manages patients with hereditary conditions or congenital malformations; and provides genetic risk calculations and mutation analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance</span> Epigenetic transmission without DNA primary structure alteration

Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance is the transmission of epigenetic markers and modifications from one generation to multiple subsequent generations without altering the primary structure of DNA. Thus, the regulation of genes via epigenetic mechanisms can be heritable; the amount of transcripts and proteins produced can be altered by inherited epigenetic changes. In order for epigenetic marks to be heritable, however, they must occur in the gametes in animals, but since plants lack a definitive germline and can propagate, epigenetic marks in any tissue can be heritable.

Madhu Sudan Kanungo was an Indian scientist in the field of gerontology and neuroscience as well as a teacher of molecular biology and biochemistry. He is known for his theories on how gene expression changes with age and the role of this phenomenon in ageing, which is a widely accepted as "Gene expression theory of Aging". In recognition of his contributions, he was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award, Padma Shri in 2005. He held the post of BHU Emeritus professor in zoology at the Banaras Hindu University and was also the Chancellor, Nagaland University till his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Crabb</span> Australian scientist (born 1966)

Brendan Scott CrabbFASM is an Australian microbiologist, research scientist and director and chief executive officer of the Burnet Institute, based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Edith Heard is a British-French researcher in epigenetics who has been serving as the Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) since January 2019. She is also Professor at the Collège de France, holding the Chair of Epigenetics and Cellular Memory. In 2025 she will become CEO of the Crick Institute in London, U.K.

Marnie Blewitt is head of a division at WEHI, which focuses on X-inactivation, and is engaged in research on the role of polycomb-group proteins in hematopoietic stem cell function.

Shiv I.S. Grewal is an American scientist who is a distinguished investigator and laboratory chief at Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, who studies the epigenetic control of higher-order chromatin assembly. His scientific career began at the University of Cambridge, where he held the prestigious Cambridge-Nehru scholarship and received Ph.D. in 1992. Then he joined National Cancer Institute as a postdoctoral fellow and found that the silenced states of gene expression can be propagated as epigenetic states. He continued to pursue his interests in the areas of epigenetic control of gene expression and development, joining Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as an assistant professor in 1998, where he was promoted to associate professor in 2002. In 2003, he assumed a position of Senior Investigator at the Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology, National Cancer Institute, where he was appointed distinguished investigator and laboratory chief in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nessa Carey</span> British molecular biologist

Nessa Carey is a British biologist working in the field of molecular biology and biotechnology. She is International Director of the technology transfer organization PraxisUnico and a visiting professor at Imperial College London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katharina Gaus</span> Australian immunologist (1972–2021)

Katharina Gaus was a German-Australian immunologist and molecular microscopist. She was an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and founding head of the Cellular Membrane Biology Lab, part of the Centre for Vascular Research at the University of New South Wales. Gaus used new super-resolution fluorescence microscopes to examine the plasma membrane within intact living cells, and study cell signalling at the level of single molecules to better understand how cells "make decisions". A key discovery of Gaus and her team was how T-cells decide to switch on the body's immune system to attack diseases. Her work is of importance to the development of drugs that can work with T-cells in support of the immune system.

Aleksandra Filipovska is a Professor, Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology and NHMRC Investigator at the University of Western Australia, heading a research group at the Telethon Kids Institute. Specializing in biochemistry and molecular biology, she has made contributions to the understanding of human mitochondrial genetics in health and disease.

Elizabeth Salisbury Dennis is an Australian scientist working mainly in the area of plant molecular biology. She is currently a chief scientist at the plant division of CSIRO Canberra. She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE) in 1987, and the Australian Academy of Science in 1995. She jointly received the inaugural Prime Minister's Science Prize together with Professor Jim Peacock in 2000 for her outstanding achievements in science and technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Stow</span> Australian scientist

Jennifer Lea Stow is deputy director (research), NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and head of the Protein Trafficking and Inflammation laboratory at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), The University of Queensland, Australia. She received a PhD from Monash University in Melbourne in 1982, postdoctoral training at Yale University School of Medicine (US) in the Department of Cell Biology. Her first faculty position was as an assistant professor at Harvard University in the Renal Unit, Departments of Medicine and Pathology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Judith Ann Clements is an Australian academic and educator, specializing in Kallikrein proteases in prostate and ovarian cancers. Clements is the scientific director at the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre – Queensland and was head of the Cancer Research Program at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) of Queensland University of Technology at the Translational Research Institute (Australia) from 1997–2014.

Tapas Kumar Kundu is an Indian molecular biologist, academician and at present the Director of Central Drug Research Institute, a prestigious research institute of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lucknow. He is the head of the Transcription and Disease Laboratory of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. He is known for his studies on the regulation of Gene expression and his contributions in cancer diagnostics and the development of new drug candidates for cancer and AIDS therapeutics. He is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India and a J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2005, for his contributions to biological sciences. He is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology.

Adele Chandler Green is an Australian epidemiological senior scientist at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane and is the institute's Head of Cancer and Population Studies Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melissa Little</span> Australian scientist and academic (born 1963)

Melissa Helen Little is an Australian scientist and academic, currently Theme Director of Cell Biology, heading up the Kidney Regeneration laboratory at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. She is also a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, and Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia. In January 2022, she became CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine reNEW, an international stem cell research center based at University of Copenhagen, and a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia, and Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands.

Alan Frederick Cowman AC, FRS, FAA, CorrFRSE, FAAHMS, FASP, FASM is an internationally acclaimed malaria researcher whose work specialises in researching the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and the molecular mechanisms it uses to evade host responses and antimalarial drugs. As of May 2024, he is the deputy directory and Laboratory Head of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne, and his laboratory continues to work on understanding how Plasmodium falciparum, infects humans and causes disease. He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in 2011 and awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia in 2019 for his "eminent service to the biological sciences, notably to molecular parasitology, to medical research and scientific education, and as a mentor."

Professor Susan J. Clark is an Australian biomedical researcher in epigenetics of development and cancer. She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2015, and is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Principal Research Fellow and Research Director and Head of Genomics and Epigenetics Division at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. Clark developed the first method for bisulphite sequencing for DNA methylation analysis and used it to establish that the methylation machinery of mammalian cells is capable of both maintenance and de novo methylation at CpNpG sites and showed is inheritable. Clark's research has advanced understanding of the role of DNA methylation, non-coding RNA and microRNA in embryogenesis, reprogramming, stem cell development and cancer and has led to the identification of epigenomic biomarkers in cancer. Clark is a founding member of the International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC) and President of the Australian Epigenetics Alliance (AEpiA).

References

  1. Morgan, HD; Sutherland, HG; Martin, DI; Whitelaw, E (1999). "Epigenetic inheritance at the agouti locus in the mouse". Nat Genet. 23 (3): 314–8. doi:10.1038/15490. PMID   10545949. S2CID   21512043.
  2. 1 2 Professor Emma Whitelaw Archived 1 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine , www.ihbi.qut.edu.au, retrieved 9 June 2012
  3. NGED Network Member Profile Archived 19 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine , retrieved 9 June 2012
  4. Michael Balter: Inheritance Is More Than Gene Deep Archived 21 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine , Science, 12 April 2006, retrieved 9 June 2012
  5. "Professor Emma Whitelaw". Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
  6. Tim Dean: Epigenetics researcher Emma Whitelaw awarded IUBMB Jubilee Medal Archived 25 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine , LifeScientist, 24 February 2011, retrieved 9 June 2012