Oppermann Group | Epigenetic Mechanisms in Musculoskeletal Disease
The research in our group focuses on target identification and validation in a spectrum of human diseases including benign and malignant soft tissue tumours or hematological malignancies affecting the skeleton such as multiple myeloma, and inflammatory conditions including endometriosis, cardiovascular disease, or autoimmune diseases.
The use of chemical, molecular and structural biology, combined with single-cell imaging and sequencing technologies provides a platform for us to understand human biology and is a major focus of the group. These approaches are currently applied to identify and validate epigenetic or metabolic mechanisms in stem cell biology, as well as chronic inflammatory, malignant and benign proliferative diseases.
In particular, our aim is to identify possible novel therapeutic intervention points in malignant such as bone and soft tissue cancers like sarcoma or in multiple myeloma, and in inflammatory or fibrotic conditions including arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, cardiovascular disease, endometriosis or uterine fibroids. These goals are pursued in highly collaborative projects, such as the Oxford-Bayer Alliance in Women's Health and the Oxford Centre for Translational Myeloma Research.
Chemical tools such as selective and cell-active inhibitors are important in understanding biological systems. We pursue the development and characterisation of chemical tools for epigenetic biology within the Epigenetic Probe Project, a public-private partnership between the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) and several academic, private and patient organisations.
RESEARCH THEMES
Our research centers on the following topics
Epigenetics in bone and mesenchymal oncology
Epigenetic mechanisms in stem cell biology
ASSOCIATED Groups
We work very closely with several independent research groups
Gillian Farnie – Cell assay development (SGC)
Siim Pauklin– TGFb in cancer stem cells
John Christianson - Target discovery and proteostais mechanisms in disease
Teams
The Oppermann group has several specialist teams
SMALL RESEARCH Facilities
The Botnar Research Center provides facilities for advanced research
Principal Investigators
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Udo Oppermann
Professor of Molecular Biology
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Siim Pauklin
CRUK Career development fellow
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Gillian Farnie
University Research Lecturer and Cellular Assays Group Leader
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John Christianson
Associate Professor and CRUK Senior Research Fellow
Team Leaders
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Martin Philpott
Senior Research Associate
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Catrine Johansson
Senior Postdoctoral Research Associate
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Adam Cribbs
Group Leader in Systems Biology and Next Generation Sequencing Analysis
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James Dunford
Senior Research Associate
Research Staff
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Chen-Yi Wang
Postdoctoral Researcher
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Reshma Nibhani
Postdoctoral Researcher
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Sarah Gooding
Clinical Research Fellow
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Manman Guo
Postdoctoral Research Assistant
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Ling Felce
Postdoctoral Researcher in Cell and Molecular Biology
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Jessica Malzahn
Laboratory Research Technician
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Marina Maritati
Laboratory Research Technician
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Graham Wells
Research Assistant
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Stefania Militi
Research Assistant in Stem Cell Biology
