Professor Dr Asifa Akhtar

Research Priorities: Epigenetics, chromatin, gene expression, RNA protein interactions, transcription, nuclear anomalies, X chromosome, metabolism
Asifa Akhtar is a molecular biologist. The primary focus of her research is gene regulation and she and her team are particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms underlying chromatin and epigenetic regulation.
Epigenetic mechanisms influence chromatin structure and determine the accessibility of genetic information. Epigenetic modifiers play a key role in embryonic development, cell type identity and reactions to environmental influences such as stress and nutrition. Asifa Akhtar has spent many years looking at how gene expression on the X chromosome is equalised between male and female organisms through the classic epigenetic phenomenon of dosage compensation. Through this work, her laboratory has discovered the critical roles played by histone acetylation and long, non-coding RNA in chromosome-wide transcription regulation.
In recent times, Asifa Akhtar used interdisciplinary approaches – ranging from biochemical analyses to epigenomic studies in mammalian model systems – to identify new connections between epigenetics and metabolism. Her long-term goal is to find out how the loss of epigenetic regulators leads to many human diseases such as cancer and developmental syndromes.