Grace Farmiloe

I am fascinated by the wealth of information that is contained within the genome and the multiple levels of regulation upon which organisms are bulit and evolution is able to act. These interests find harmony in the evolutionary neurogenomics lab.

Research

My research project explores the role of krab zinc finger proteins as gene regulators and the impact this has had on primate evolution. This family of genes is widely known for its ability to repress transposable elements but recent studies have shown that a subsection of this gene family bind to a large number of gene promoters. Around half of these promoter binding genes are primate specific and I aim to uncover the impact the emergence of this new gene regulatory network had upon the primate brain.