Kathleen Watt, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
For Zoom details, please email qcri@queensu.ca
“Epigenetic coordination of transcriptional and translational programs in hypoxia”
Brief Abstract and Bio:
I completed my PhD studies at Queen's University under the supervision of Dr. Andrew Craig, investigating the role of microRNAs in metastatic cancers. I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the group of Dr. Ola Larsson at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. My lastest work investigates mechanisms coordinating adaptive gene expression programs in cancer. I use various wet-lab techniques and bioinformatic approaches to understand the interplay between epigenetic, transcriptional, and translational programs in hypoxia, and how the coordination of these processes contributes to cancer cell plasticity. In this talk, I will outline our recent work where we have revealed that hypoxia-induced alterations in H3K4me3 are associated with pervasive changes in transcription start site selection, leading to remodeling of 5'UTRs that act as critical hubs regulating translation. These epigenetically driven changes in mRNA isoform selection are coordinated with the stress-induced reprogramming of the translational machinery to drive adaptive gene expression programs under hypoxia.
Host: Lynne-Marie Postovit, PhD