Biological Sciences
Area of Doctoral Study: Biology
Undergraduate Institute: UMBC
Research Advisor: Erin Green, Ph.D.
Description of Research
SET family proteins are lysine methyltransferases that regulate chromatin, via methylation of histones through the catalytic SET domain. SET4 is one of two SET proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae which likely has an inactive SET domain as well as a PHD domain. Our laboratory has shown that SET4 is important in stress conditions and controls the expression of stress related genes, but the mechanisms through which it acts are not well understood. My work investigates how SET4 associates with chromatin and carries out its function using molecular biology techniques, transcriptomics, and proteomics. Overall, my findings will contribute to a better understanding of the function of SET4 as well as provide better insight of the human orthologs of SET4, MLL5 and SETD5, which have been implicated in diseases such as cancers or neurological disorders.