Keith D. Robertson, Assistant Professor at Biochemistry UF

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Keith D. Robertson

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 1996

Research

Cancer Epigenetics & DNA Methylation

Office:

R3-226

Lab:

R3-156

Telephone:

(352) 392-1810

Email:

keithr@ufl.edu

Home Page:

http:// www.med.ufl.edu/biochem/keithr/

	BIOGRAPHY
	Keith D. Robertson received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from The Johns Hopkins University in 1996 under the direction of Dr. Richard Ambinder for work on the role of DNA methylation in regulating Epstein-Barr virus transcription and latency. He then joined the laboratory of Dr. Peter A. Jones at the University of Southern California to do postdoctoral research studying the role of DNA methylation in regulating transcription of tumor-suppressor genes. Dr. Robertson then did a second brief postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Alan Wolffe at the National Institutes of Health were he performed biochemical studies of the DNA methyltransferases. In 2000 he became an NCI Cancer Scholar and principal investigator at the National Cancer Institute and continued his studies directed at characterizing the biochemical properties of the DNA methylation machinery. Dr. Robertson joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 2004.
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION
The focus of the laboratory is on the role of epigenetic modifications in normal cellular homestasis, differentiation, and tumor progression. Epigenetic modifications of the genome, such as DNA methylation, are not encoded by the DNA sequence, but are imposed by enzymes post-replicatively. These modifications (DNA methylation, histone methylation and acetylation) are potent regulators of transcription and chromatin structure in mammalian cells. We are particularly interested in studying how these enzymes (DNA methyltransferases for example) are regulated in normal cells and how they become dysregulated in tumor cells, since aberrant DNA methylation patterns are one of the hallmarks of transformed cells. Current projects in the lab include (1) identification of novel aberrantly methylated genes in tumor cells using microarray methods, (2) characterizing the role of the epigenetic modification machinery in differentiation using murine embryonic stem cells as a model system, and (3) isolating and characterizing protein complexes in which the DNA methyltransferases reside.