Professor Julia Horsfield's group is studying how packaging of chromosomes in cells affects the function of genes that are involved in cancer, or how that influences early stages of embryo development.
Their tools for discovery include the cool and amazing zebrafish animal model and human cancer cell lines, with the main research focus seeking to understand the regulation of gene expression by cohesin and related proteins, which are also required for sister chromatid cohesion during mitosis. To do most of the research, the group is using the genetically amenable vertebrate animal model, the zebrafish, utilising the Otago Zebrafish Facility.
Learn more about the Chromosome Structure and Development group.