EPIGENETICS

In my talk, I will give a broad overview of epigenetics, discuss examples of epigenetics, and explain how we study epigenetics in the lab).
DNA is the molecule of heredity, containing discrete units called genes, which transfer traits from generation to generation. However, the presence of a given sequence of DNA does not always predict the outcome one would expect. For example, the silencing or activation of genes can be influenced by other factors that affect how DNA is read by the cellular machinery. Specifically, chemical tags added to DNA, or its cousin RNA, can change the function of those molecules. Since the order of the DNA or RNA nucleotides are not changed, we refer to these as epigenetic modifications (as opposed to genetic modifications).

About Christopher Phiel:
Dr. Phiel was born and raised in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He went to Ursinus College, where he majored in Biology and was a 4-year starting shortstop for the baseball team. He obtained his Ph.D. in Developmental Biology from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, then did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. After spending 8 years at Ohio State University, he has been at the University of Colorado Denver since 2102, where he is an Associate Professor in the Biology Department.

Everyone is welcome. We ask non dues paying attendees to make a $5 voluntary contribution.
Doors open at 4:30.