Wolf Reik

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wolf Reik
Wolf Reik
NationalityGerman
AwardsEMBO Member[when?]
FMedSci
FRS
Scientific career
Fieldsepigenetics
InstitutionsBabraham Institute
University of Cambridge,
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Websitewww.babraham.ac.uk/our-research/epigenetics/wolf-reik

Wolf Reik FRS[1] is a German molecular biologist and an honorary group leader at the Babraham Institute, honorary professor of Epigenetics at the University of Cambridge and associate faculty at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.[2][3][4] He was announced as the director of Altos Labs Cambridge Institute when the company launched on 19 January 2022.[5]

Career and research[edit]

Wolf Reik studies how additional information can be added to the genome through a range of processes collectively called epigenetics. He discovered some of the key epigenetic mechanisms important for mammalian development, physiology, genome reprogramming, and human diseases. His early work led to the discovery that the molecular mechanism of genomic imprinting is based on DNA methylation.[6] He uncovered non-coding RNA[7] and chromatin looping[8] regulating imprinted genes, which he showed to be involved in fetal nutrition, growth, and disease.[9] He found that the environment influences epigenetic programming in embryos, with changes in gene expression persisting in adults and their offspring.

Awards and honours[edit]

Wolf Reik has received many awards, including:

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Anon (2010). "Wolf Reik's FRS". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  2. ^ "Wolf Reik's group". babraham.ac.uk. Babraham Institute.
  3. ^ "Wolf Reik at the Sanger". sanger.ac.uk. Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
  4. ^ Wolf Reik publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  5. ^ Labs, Altos. "Altos Labs launches with the goal to transform medicine through cellular rejuvenation programming". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  6. ^ Reik W, Collick A, Norris ML, Barton SC, Surani MA (1987) Genomic imprinting determines methylation of parental alleles in transgenic mice. Nature 328, 248-251
  7. ^ Smits G, Mungall AJ, Griffiths-Jones S, Smith P, Beury D, Matthews L, Rogers J, Pask AJ, Shaw G, VandeBerg JL, McCarrey JR, Renfree MB, Reik W, DunhamI (2008) Conservation of the H19 noncoding RNA and H19-IGF2 imprinting mechanism in therians. Nature Genetics 40, 971-976
  8. ^ Murrell A, Heeson S, Reik W (2004) Interaction between differentially methylated regions partitions the imprinted genes Igf2 and H19 into parent-specific chromatin loops. Nature genetics 36, 889-893
  9. ^ Constância, Miguel; Hemberger, Myriam; Hughes, Jennifer; Dean, Wendy; Ferguson-Smith, Anne; Fundele, Reinald; Stewart, Francesca; Kelsey, Gavin; Fowden, Abigail; Sibley, Colin; Reik, Wolf (2002). "Placental-specific IGF-II is a major modulator of placental and fetal growth". Nature. 417 (6892): 945–948. doi:10.1038/nature00819. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 12087403. S2CID 4421165. (subscription required)
  10. ^ "Wolf Reik's page at Academia Europaea". Ae-info.org. Retrieved 2 January 2014.