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Research Opportunities

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Prospective Students

The goal of the NIH Oxford-Cambridge (OxCam) Scholars Program is to create, foster, and advance unique and collaborative research opportunities between NIH laboratories and laboratories at the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge. Each OxCam Scholar develops a collaborative research project that will constitute his/her doctoral training. Each Scholar also select two mentors – one at the NIH and one in the UK – who work together to guide the Scholar throughout the research endeavor.

Students may select from two categories of projects: Self-designed or Prearranged. OxCam Scholars may create a self-designed project, which enables students to develop a collaborative project tailored to his/her specific scientific interests by selecting one NIH mentor and one UK mentor with expertise in the desired research area(s). Alternatively, students may select a prearranged project provided by NIH and/or UK Investigator(s) willing to mentor an OxCam Scholar in their lab.

Self-designed Projects 
Students may create a novel (or de novo) project based on their unique research interests. Students have the freedom to contact any PI at NIH or at Oxford or Cambridge to build a collaboration from scratch. The NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP) represents a community of approximately 1,200 tenured and tenure-track investigators providing a wealth of opportunity to explore a wide variety of research interests. Students may visit https://irp.nih.gov to identify NIH PIs performing research in the area of interest. For additional tips on choosing a mentor, please visit our Training Plan.

Prearranged Projects
Investigators at NIH or at Oxford or Cambridge have voluntarily offered collaborative project ideas for NIH OxCam Scholars. These projects are provided below and categorized by research area, NIH Institute/Center, and University. In some cases, a full collaboration with two mentors is already in place. In other instances, only one PI is identified, which allows the student to select a second mentor to complete the collaboration. Please note that prearranged project offerings are continuously updated throughout the year and are subject to change.

2 Search Results

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Category:
Chromosome Biology
Project:

Chromosome Structure and Epigenetic Memory 

Project Listed Date:
Institute or Center:
N/A
NIH Mentor:
N/A
UK Mentor:

Prof. Amanda Fisher

University:
Oxford
Project Details:

We are interested in understanding how cellular identity is propagated as cells divide. Using advanced flow cytometry combined with mass spectrometry1,2, we have been able to isolate and purify individual mitotic chromosomes from different species (human, mouse and fly) and comprehensively profile the proteins and RNAs that remain chromosome-associated during mitosis. We have also prospectively isolated the active and inactive X metaphase chromosomes from female cells and identified novel factors likely to be important for maintaining their distinctive states3. Although many proteins are evicted from condensing chromosomes, our studies have shown that approximately 10% remain chromosome-associated throughout mitosis1,4. These include specific DNA-binding factors, chromatin repressor complexes, DNA methylation machinery and SMC family proteins. To assess their importance for chromosome structure and epigenetic inheritance, we are systematically degrading or cleaving individual factors in metaphase and examining the biophysical, structural and molecular consequences of this using optical tweezers and Cryo-ET approaches as well as analysing nascent RNA expression in postmitotic cells. These studies bring together expertise in several fields to decipher, at a mechanistic level, how epigenetic memory is propagated. In addition, as the approaches we are developing enable native (unfixed) human chromosomes to be individually isolated and studied ex vivo, we will investigate how disease-associated chromosomal translocations impact mitotic bookmarking and genome stability.

References

  1. Djeghloul et al., 2020 Nat Commun. 11, 4118. 
  2. Djeghloul et al., 2023 Nat Struct Mol Biol 30, 489.
  3. Djeghloul et al.,Research Square https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4687808/v1
  4. Dimond et al.,bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.23.590758
201
Category:
Chromosome Biology
Project:

Understand human disease associated with chromosome instability

Project Listed Date:
Institute or Center:
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
NIH Mentor:

Dr. Vladimir Larionov

UK Mentor:

Prof. Fumiko Esashi

University:
Oxford
Project Details:

The aim of this project is to exploit the human artificial chromosomes (HAC) to understand human disease associated with chromosome instability and to develop new strategy for therapeutic treatments.

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