Achievement

IGERT-Lifechips fellow, Amanda Janesick, conducted a research that has interest in measuring genome-wide epigenetic changes. With her lab partners, they study how prenatal exposure to environmental toxins predisposes an organism to be obese later in life. They are interested in determining which genes might be epigenetically modified and predict that these genes are the driving force in programming stem cells to be biased towards the adipocyte (fat) lineage. By attending conference and talking to expert in epigenetics and prenatal programming, Amanda has learned two technologies, MeDIP and ChIP-CHIP, which she can bring to the laboratory because they promise to deliver a bigger, genome-wide picture as to how developing organism is programmed to be obese. Amanda expresses the experiences she has gained through Lifechips, communicating with students and professors from diverse fields, has helped her to be more confident and able to absorb conference information as much as possible.