Alexander A. Gimelbrant, PhD

Researcher

Contact Information

Office Phone Number617-582-7326
Fax617-632-7440

alexander_gimelbrant@dfci.harvard.edu

Bio

Alexander Gimelbrant earned his PhD in biochemistry from Moscow University, Russia, in 1996, and studied molecular biology of the olfactory system at the University of Kentucky.

In his postdoctoral work at the Whitehead Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital, he focused on biology of genome-wide epigenetic gene regulation, including mapping of monoallelic gene silencing in human cells, allele-specific replication in the mouse genome, and the evolutionary fate of genes that are subject to monoallelic expression.

He joined Dana-Farber in December 2008.

Research

Epigenomics of Allele-specific Gene Expression in Normal Cells and in Cancer

Establishment and maintenance of active or inactive epigenetic states are fundamental processes in metazoan biology. In mammals, two well-known classes of epigenetic gene silencing are imprinting (where for some genes, the copy inherited from the mother is silenced, while for other genes, the paternal copy is turned off) and X chromosome inactivation (in each female cell, one whole copy of the X chromosome is inactivated). Our research has shown that each pair of autosomes has multiple loci behaving in a manner similar to X inactivation. Research in the laboratory is focused on the questions concerning allele-specific regulation of gene expression, particularly in the genes subject to the "random" monoallelic expression (MAE). Our lab mission is to identify factors that control the choice of the active allele of MAE genes; to understand how clone-specific MAE is established and maintained; to understand the evolutionary forces affecting the genes with MAE and resulting from MAE of genes; and to uncover how autosomal MAE impacts normal development and human disease.

View Dr. Gimelbrant's Publications

Gimelbrant A, Hutchinson JN, Thompson BR, Chess A. (2007) Widespread monoallelic expression on human autosomes. Science. 2007 Nov 16;318(5853):1136-40.

Gimelbrant, A. A., and Chess, A. (2006) An epigenetic state associated with areas of gene duplication. Genome Res. 16(6):723-9.

Gimelbrant, A.A., Skaletsky, H., and Chess, A. (2004) Selective pressures on the olfactory receptor repertoire since the human-chimpanzee divergence. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 101(24):9010-22.