Prof. Dr. Katharina Gapp
Area of Interest
Epigenetics and Neuroendocrinology
Understanding and counteracting the impacts of stress on disease risk across generations
Prerequisites a student should comply with
Enthusiasm for epigenetics, neuroscience, translatable techniques (drugs) and how the environment can shape an organism. I welcome students, who do not shy away from hard work, accept that a big part of practical experimentation consists in learning from mistakes. They should be motivated and ambitious to achieve their highest goals, but also enjoy working as teamplayers! Experience in programming in R and knowledge of unix are beneficial.
Recommended master courses (Electives) of Learning Agreement of the Major
551-0140-00L Epigenetics
376-1347-00L Bioinformatic Approaches to Regulatory Genomics and Epigenomics
or
376-1723-00L Big Data Analysis in Biomedical Research
551-0364-00L Functional Genomics
551-0309-00L Concepts in Modern Genetics
551-1303-00L Cellular Biochemistry of Health and Disease
376-1307-00 Translational Neuroscience
376-1305-01L Neural Systems for Sensory, Motor and Higher Brain Functions
227-1051-00L Systems Neuroscience (University of Zurich)
376-1414-00L Current Topics in Brain Research
Research projects of the group
Our group uses novel, translatable tools based on modern genome-engineering techniques and targeted protein degradation strategies, to find and correct molecular changes that affect stress-induced disease risk. We put a particular focus on intergenerational effects and the underlying mechanisms (epigenetic germline inheritance), but also on direct effects of stress on disease risk (ranging from mood and metabolic disorders to cancer). The techniques we employ to assess the effects of our innovative tools in vitro and in vivo include all sorts of Omics sequencing to study the epigenome and gene expression, confocal microscopys and behavioral and metabolic phenotyping.