Blewitt Lab

We study how genes are turned on and off, a process called epigenetic control that is critical for development. The DNA of a fertilised egg contains all the information to form an adult. Proteins called epigenetic modifiers turn different genes on and off throughout development. Disease can occur if this process fails.

Despite the importance of epigenetic control, we still don’t completely understand how it works. Our lab tries to understand this fundamental process at the nuts and bolts level. Our ultimate aims are to understand how epigenetic control works, so that we understand normal development, at the same time as learning how to harness the amazing potential of manipulating epigenetic modifiers to treat disease. Our current focus is activating or inhibiting the epigenetic regulator SMCHD1.

Our vision is to decipher the precise molecular mechanisms that mediate epigenetic control to harness epigenetic regulators to treat disease.

Based on our discovery of the epigenetic regulator SMCHD1, we have used model systems, genomics and imaging to define when SMCHD1 is relevant in normal development and what it does at the DNA to help switch genes off. These studies are powering our understanding of how to target SMCHD1 to treat disease.

We continue to search for new epigenetic regulators and epigenetic mechanisms, now using X chromosome inactivation as a model system. Using our elegant Xmas cell system of female embryonic stem cells, we have revealed that the chromatin needs to be opened before it can be shut down and silenced. This new finding helps to reveal what steps might be required to bring about gene silencing in other contexts.