Kathleen Stewart-Morgan receives ERC Starting Grant

Each year the European Research Council (ERC) distributes the so-called Starting Grants to researchers who have two-seven years’ experience after completing their PhD. The researchers receive EUR 1.5 million over a period of five years for establishing a research group on a ground-breaking research idea.

The grant is given to scientist who has done excellent research and is ready to work independently with potential to become a research leader.

This year, one Starting Grant is given to the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. And the receiver, associate professor Kathleen Stewart-Morgan, is looking forward to using the grant for her new research:

“It’s a great honor to receive the ERC Starting Grant, and I’m excited to build my research group and start this project”, says Kathleen. She is an associate professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.

Cutting-edge techniques

Kathleen Stewart-Morgan has received the grant to continue her excellent research in epigenetics, with a particular focus on DNA methylation and its reprogramming during germline development.

“The epigenome acts to control gene expression and maintain the genome’s stability. DNA methylation is a particularly important epigenetic mark – in mammals, it is required for gene repression and for silencing of repetitive elements,” says Kathleen and adds:

”Despite its importance, DNA methylation is erased during the development of the germline, the cells that eventually give rise to eggs and sperm. This “reprogramming” is thought to mostly occur through replication – by dividing without re-establishing methylation on newly replicated DNA, the germ cell pool dilutes out DNA methylation.”

In the project, Kathleen and her colleagues will be using cutting-edge techniques to gain knowledge about reprogramming of the germline in development.

“We will investigate replication-driven reprogramming and the hypomethylated state by developing and utilizing state-of-the-art sequencing, mass spectrometry, microscopy, and metabolics approaches, using mouse and in vitro models,” explains Kathleen.

She hopes that the grant will allow her and her colleagues to gain knowledge about the role of reprogramming in germ cell biology, and to develop new technologies that in the future can be used to study epigenetic changes in other contexts, such as cancer and ageing.