Dr Katharine Plant

Post doctoral scientist

Regulatory genetic variation and autoimmune disease

I am working on the GenExpressID project, which aims to characterise gene expression in patients of various autoimmune diseases within different immune cell types.  We are hoping to determine unique expression signatures that are associated with disease, as well as analyse how gene expression may relate to underlying genetic variation and different medical treatments.

This leads on from work I undertook as part of my DPhil project studying gene expression in the MHC, a highly polymorphic genomic region where several candidate genes related to disease are emerging that show allelic differences in gene expression. I characterised allele-specific gene expression and sought to define specific functional variants.

I have previously worked with Dr Gill and Dr Hyde studying reporter genes for gene therapy for Cystic Fibrosis and with Dr Newbury studying the JNK signalling pathway in drosophila both as undergraduate research projects. I completed my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at Oxford in 2008, and my DPhil in Clinical Genetics with the Julian Knight Group in 2012.

Email: kplant@well.ox.ac.uk

Keywords: Autoimmunity, MHC, Genetics, Regulatory variants, Alternative splicing

This project is sponsored by the Medical Research Council