Garvan Institute of Medical Research

Leaders in Science

Dr Alyson Ashe DECRA Fellow

School of Molecular Bioscience University of Sydney

“Transgenerational memory in C. elegans”

Monday 23 June, 2014 12PM, NAB AUDITORIUM

Host: Professor Susan Clark

Dr Ashe completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Sydney. Her honours project was with Ben Oldroyd studying the control of worker sterility in the honeybee. She went on to do a PhD with Emma Whitelaw starting at Sydney Uni and then moving with her to the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) in Brisbane. With Emma Dr Ashe worked in the area of epigenetics - both specifically on transgenerational phenomena and more broadly on epigenetic modifiers. Once she left Emma's lab she went to work with Eric Miska in Cambridge on a Herschel Smith Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. In Eric's lab she followed up her interest in epigenetic inheritance, establishing a robust system with which to study the mechanisms of inheritance using the nematode C. elegans as a model system. She will be talking about her recent work using this system. She is currently at the University of Sydney as a DECRA fellow.