Katherine Cullen

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Katherine Cullen (born 7 November 1968) is an American biologist.

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Early life and education

Cullen was born in Midland, Michigan to Jim and Ann Hicks. [1] She attended Herbert Henry Dow High School in Midland. [1] She graduated in 1986, and began her undergraduate degree at Michigan State University. [1] In 1990 she graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Microbiology and in the same year began her pursuing her PhD at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. [1] In 1995 Cullen received her PhD in molecular biology from Vanderbilt. In her research, Cullen studied cell and molecular life sciences. [1] Her PhD dissertation "focused on how packaging of the prolactin gene into chromatin affected the regulation of its expression." [1] In March 2019, Cullen's research was recognized in Scientific American by Erez Lieberman Aiden. [2]

Career

She then moved to Lexington, Kentucky and began post-doctoral training at the Chandler Medical Center at University of Kentucky in the Department of Biochemistry. [1] While at the University of Kentucky, she "studied the regulation of the transcription of heat shock factors and their expression during spermatogenesis." [1] After finishing her research at the University of Kentucky, Cullen accepted a visiting assistant professor position before becoming the molecular-biologist at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. [1] She taught courses in microbiology, cell and molecular biology, genetics, molecular genetics, reproductive biology, and general biology. Also while at Transylvania, Cullen began writing and editing scientific education materials for the educational resource company, Mcgraw Hill. [1]

In 2002, Cullen moved to Cleveland, Ohio and began teaching at Lorain County Community College. In 2007 she was hired at Oberlin College in the Biology department where she has continued to work to this day. [1]

Research

In her undergraduate research at Michigan State University, Cullen was a laboratory technician in the genetics laboratory and researched potato breeding. In the laboratory, the intent of the research was to find restriction fragment length polymorphisms and genetic markers that would provide information about which desirable traits are associated with those genetic markers. [3]

During her dissertation at Vanderbilt University, Cullen and colleagues worked in the laboratory of Dr. Mark Seyfred. Their goal was to look for relationships between how prolactin is packaged and how the gene expression is regulated. [4] They did discover a relationship, although what makes this research notable is that a new technique for probing the chromatin structure was discovered. [2] In their research they developed the Nuclear Ligation Assay (NLA). [2] They concluded that "the two DNA bits often come near to each other in the 3-D space of the cells' nucleus. [2] Today this technique is used in studies regarding nuclear architecture and how DNA is packaged in the nucleus, specifically expanded in research by Eric Lander, Chad Nusbaum, Andreas Gnirke, and Job Dekker. [2] [5] "Cullen's work offered some of the first direct evidence that the larger three-dimensional structure of the genome is related to its function." [6] Her research also led to the formation of the well-known method "Hi-C" also known as "3C". [2]

Related Research Articles

Chromatin is a complex of DNA and protein found in eukaryotic cells. The primary function is to package long DNA molecules into more compact, denser structures. This prevents the strands from becoming tangled and also plays important roles in reinforcing the DNA during cell division, preventing DNA damage, and regulating gene expression and DNA replication. During mitosis and meiosis, chromatin facilitates proper segregation of the chromosomes in anaphase; the characteristic shapes of chromosomes visible during this stage are the result of DNA being coiled into highly condensed chromatin.

Heterochromatin is a tightly packed form of DNA or condensed DNA, which comes in multiple varieties. These varieties lie on a continuum between the two extremes of constitutive heterochromatin and facultative heterochromatin. Both play a role in the expression of genes. Because it is tightly packed, it was thought to be inaccessible to polymerases and therefore not transcribed; however, according to Volpe et al. (2002), and many other papers since, much of this DNA is in fact transcribed, but it is continuously turned over via RNA-induced transcriptional silencing (RITS). Recent studies with electron microscopy and OsO4 staining reveal that the dense packing is not due to the chromatin.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Katherine Cullen". Oberlin College and Conservatory. 2016-10-28. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Untangling the Formation of DNA Loops". Scientific American. March 2019. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  3. ↑ Douches, D.S.; Ludlam, K (1991). "Electrophoretic Characterization of North American Potato Cultivars" (PDF). American Potato Journal. 68 (11): 767–780. doi:10.1007/BF02853807. S2CID   20103786.
  4. ↑ Cullen, K. E.; Kladde, M. P.; Seyfred, M. A. (1993-07-09). "Interaction between transcription regulatory regions of prolactin chromatin". Science. 261 (5118): 203–206. Bibcode:1993Sci...261..203C. doi:10.1126/science.8327891. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   8327891.
  5. ↑ Perkel, Jeffrey M. (2016-10-06). "Chromatin untangled: New methods map genomic structure". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  6. ↑ "Quanta Magazine – Illuminating Science". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
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