Oppermann Group | Epigenetic Mechanisms in Musculoskeletal Disease
Epigenetics in bone and mesenchymal oncology
Epigenetic mechanisms in stem cell biology
Epigenetic mechanisms in inflammatory diseases
Target discovery in endometriosis + uterine fibroids
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.
Our team
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Udo Oppermann
Professor of Molecular Biology
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Gillian Farnie
Cellular Assays Group Leader
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Martin Philpott
Senior Research Associate
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Catrine Johansson
Senior Postdoctoral Research Associate
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James Dunford
Senior Research Associate
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Thomas Tapmeier
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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Manman Guo
Postdoctoral Research Assistant
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Reshma Nibhani
Postdoctoral Researcher
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JoyAnn Andrews
Personal Assistant to Professor Udo Oppermann
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Ling Felce
Postdoctoral Researcher
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Graham Wells
Research Assistant
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Catherine Shang
Scientific Project Manager
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Jessica Malzahn
Laboratory Research Technician
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Henry Lee
DPhil Student
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Chao Jiang
DPhil Student
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Ruth Helen Faram
Laboratory Research Technician (Post-Doctoral)
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Siim Pauklin
CRUK Career development fellow
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Marina Maritati
Laboratory Research Technician
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Nadia Halidi
Postdoctoral Researcher
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Chen-Yi Wang
Postdoctoral Research Assistant
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Steve Joyce
Research Data Manager
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Jing Wang
Technical Assistant
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Carina Gileadi
Research Assistant
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Florentine Timmer
MSc (by Research)
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Sarah Gooding
Clinical Research Fellow
Funding
Our research is supported by:
- Arthritis Research UK (Program grant 20522);
- Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Unit;
- Rosetrees Trust;
- Medical Research Council;
- EPSRC;
- BBSRC;
- UCB;
- GlaxoSmithKline;
- Bayer Healthcare.
Strategic collaborations
- Paul Brennan, Antony Tumber, Wyatt Yue & Chas Bountra (SGC, Oxford)
- Chris Schofield & Michael McDonough (Chemistry, Oxford)
- Santaris
- Chris Ponting & Andreas Heger (CGAT/DPAG, Oxford)
- Ulrich Guenther (Wellcome Trust centre for Biomolecular NMR, Birmingham)
- Bayer Healthcare
- GSK
- Novartis
- UCB
- Danica Fujimori & Brian Shoichet (UCSF)
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Paul Wordsworth (NDORMS, Oxford)
- Nick La Thangue (Oncology, Oxford)
- Matt Brown & Emma Duncan (Diamantina Institute, Brisbane)
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Tamer Onder (Koc University, Istanbul)