Current Member - Dr. Ursula Paredes
Postdoctoral Researcher
Ursula Paredes
Details
Name: Dr. Ursula Paredes
Position: Postdoctoral researcher
Email: ursula.paredes@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Autobiography
I graduated with an honours degree in Zoology from the San Marcos University, Lima Peru in 1999. I then worked as a research assistant at the Natural History Museum in Lima for 4 years studying mammal diversity and phylogenetics. This work sparked my interest in phenotypic plasticity and led to a PhD studentship at the University of Liverpool (2003-2008), investigating the evolution of transcriptional switches in candidate genes for social behaviour and cognitive phenotype in primates. I then took a postdoctoral position at the Institute of Psychiatry in King’s College (2008-2011), this time mapping genome wide epigenetic (chromatin remodeling) and gene expression changes in response to stress in neuronal models for Major Depression. I joined the EGI in August 2011
Research Activities
I am interested in understanding how plasticity of behavioural phenotype in response to changing environments is achieved through changes in gene expression, via genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. I am keen to explore DNA methylation as it can (i) affect long-term gene expression; play a key role in (ii) developmental plasticity and in (iii) phenotypic evolution. Currently I am investigating the role of epigenetic modification in the great tits of Wytham woods in an evolutionary ecology context. The project focuses in testing if (a) changes in methylation mediate interaction between early life environmental conditions and life history traits and (b) trans-generational epigenetic inheritance in the great tits. This project is a collaboration led by Tobias Uller (EGI, University of Oxford) and the Developmental Epigenetics Group (University of Southampton). I am also researching on the socioecology-epigenetics of Chacma baboons exposed to early life stress, in collaboration with Guy Cowlishaw (Institute of Zoology) and Jon Mill (Institute of Psychiatry, KCL).
Selected Papers
Paredes UM, Macho GA, Bubb VJ, Haddley K, Quinn JP (2011) Evolutionary conserved region in the H. sapiens DRD4 gene supports differential levels of reporter gene expression in cortical cultures BMC Neuroscience 12:46(1-7). | Read abstract/paper online
Lewis C et al., [30 authors] (2010) Genome-wide association study of major recurrent depression in the UK population Am J Psychiatry 167: 949-957. | Read abstract/paper online
Ali FR, Haddley K, Vasiliou AS, Paredes UM, Roberts JC, Klenova E, Bubb VJ, Quinn JP (2009) Combinatorial interaction between two human serotonin transporter gene variable number tandem repeats and their regulation by CTCF . Journal of Neurochemistry 112: 296-306. | Read abstract/paper online
Haddley K, Vasiliou AS, Ali FR, Paredes UM, Bubb VJ, Quinn JP (2007) Molecular genetics of monoamine transporters: relevance to brain disorders (Invited review) Neurochemical research 33: 652-667. | Read abstract/paper online
Download complete list of publications in PDF format
