-
Areas
Technologies

About

Hamish King completed his undergraduate and Honours at Flinders University in Adelaide, before moving to the United Kingdom to undertake his PhD training in molecular epigenetics at the University of Oxford with Prof Rob Klose. While there he studied how gene expression is regulated by chromatin-modifying complexes, and how sequence-specific transcription factors cooperate with chromatin remodellers to access and bind the genome. Following his PhD, Hamish was a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Dr Louisa James at the Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London, where he studied the transcriptional and epigenetic regulatory networks that determine B cell identity and function in the human immune system.

Building on these discoveries, Hamish joined WEHI as a Laboratory Head in 2022, where his team is focused on understanding how defects in the epigenetic control of gene expression are involved in human autoimmune disease.

To achieve this, the lab uses both experimental and computational approaches, combined with ex vivo immune cell cultures for human B cell maturation. We integrate results from our lab-based analyses with datasets from “real world” patient single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic datasets, and vice versa, with the long-term aim to provide translational insights into how epigenetic dysregulation in the immune system is linked with disease.

Publications

Selected publications from Dr Hamish King

Massoni-Badosa R, Aguilar-Fernández S, Nieto JC, Soler-Vila P, Elosua-Bayes M, Marchese D, Kulis M, Vilas-Zornoza A, Bühler MM, Rashmi S, Alsinet C, Caratù G, Moutinho C, Ruiz S, Lorden P, Lunazzi G, Colomer D, Frigola G, Blevins W, Romero-Rivero L, Jiménez-Martínez V, Vidal A, Mateos-Jaimez J, Maiques-Diaz A, Ovejero S, Moreaux J, Palomino S, Gomez-Cabrero D, Agirre X, Weniger MA, King HW, Garner LC, Marini F, Cervera-Paz FJ, Baptista PM, Vilaseca I, Rosales C, Ruiz-Gaspà S, Talks B, Sidhpura K, Pascual-Reguant A, Hauser AE, Haniffa M, Prosper F, Küppers R, Gut IG, Campo E, Martin-Subero JI, Heyn H. An atlas of cells in the human tonsil. Immunity. 2024;57(2):10.1016/j.immuni.2024.01.006

Conde CD, Xu C, Jarvis L, Rainbow D, Wells S, Gomes T, Howlett S, Suchanek O, Polanski K, King H, Mamanova L, Huang N, Szabo P, Richardson L, Bolt L, Fasouli E, Mahbubani K, Prete M, Tuck L, Richoz N, Tuong Z, Campos L, Mousa H, Needham E, Pritchard S, Li T, Elmentaite R, Park J, Rahmani E, Chen D, Menon D, Bayraktar O, James L, Meyer K, Yosef N, Clatworthy, Sims P, Farber D, Saeb-Parsy K, Jones J, Teichmann. Cross-tissue immune cell analysis reveals tissue-specific features in humans. Science. 2022;376(6594):10.1126/science.abl5197

Kleshchevnikov V, Shmatko A, Dann E, Aivazidis A, King HW, Li T, Elmentaite R, Lomakin A, Kedlian V, Gayoso A, Jain MS, Park JS, Ramona L, Tuck E, Arutyunyan A, Vento-Tormo R, Gerstung M, James L, Stegle O, Bayraktar OA. Cell2location maps fine-grained cell types in spatial transcriptomics. Nature Biotechnology. 2022;40(5):10.1038/s41587-021-01139-4

King HW, Wells KL, Shipony Z, Kathiria AS, Wagar LE, Lareau C, Orban N, Capasso R, Davis MM, Steinmetz LM, James LK, Greenleaf WJ. Integrated single-cell transcriptomics and epigenomics reveals strong germinal center–associated etiology of autoimmune risk loci. Science Immunology. 2021;6(64):10.1126/sciimmunol.abh3768

King HW, Orban N, Riches JC, Clear AJ, Warnes G, Teichmann SA, James LK. Single-cell analysis of human B cell maturation predicts how antibody class switching shapes selection dynamics. Science Immunology. 2021;6(56):10.1126/sciimmunol.abe6291

King HW, Fursova NA, Blackledge NP, Klose RJ. Polycomb repressive complex 1 shapes the nucleosome landscape but not accessibility at target genes. Genome Research. 2018;28(10):10.1101/gr.237180.118

King HW, Klose RJ. The pioneer factor OCT4 requires the chromatin remodeller BRG1 to support gene regulatory element function in mouse embryonic stem cells. eLife. 2017;6:10.7554/elife.22631

Rose NR, King HW, Blackledge NP, Fursova NA, Ember KJ, Fischer R, Kessler BM, Klose RJ. RYBP stimulates PRC1 to shape chromatin-based communication between Polycomb repressive complexes. eLife. 2016;5:10.7554/elife.18591

Blackledge NP, Farcas AM, Kondo T, King HW, McGouran JF, Hanssen LLP, Ito S, Cooper S, Kondo K, Koseki Y, Ishikura T, Long HK, Sheahan TW, Brockdorff N, Kessler BM, Koseki H, Klose RJ. Variant PRC1 Complex-Dependent H2A Ubiquitylation Drives PRC2 Recruitment and Polycomb Domain Formation. Cell. 2014;157(6):10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.004

King HW, Michael MZ, Gleadle JM. Hypoxic enhancement of exosome release by breast cancer cells. BMC Cancer. 2012;12(1):10.1186/1471-2407-12-421

Lab research projects

Interested in supporting our research?

Your support will help WEHI’s researchers make discoveries and find treatments to ensure healthier, longer lives for you and your loved ones.

Contact our friendly team to find out how you can help.