The Art of Chromosome Dynamics: An Interview with Jane Skok

Abstract

In this interview, Professor Jane Skok speaks with Storm Johnson, commissioning editor for Epigenomics, on her work to date in the field of chromosome architecture and regulatory elements.

Jane Skok’s lab uses sophisticated microscopic techniques to visualize recombination in individual cells, tracing the dynamic changes in chromosome architecture and nuclear location at different stages of this complex process. This line of research unites two lifelong passions: science and art. After completing her PhD in immunology and genetics at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Dr Skok took 12 years off and pursued training in art while caring for her young children. She then returned to science, joining David Gray’s lab at Imperial College London as a postdoctoral fellow to study B cell biology and acquired expertise in Mandy Fisher’s lab to understand how nuclear organization of the antigen receptor genes regulate V(D)J recombination and allelic exclusion. Dr Skok continued to pursue these questions in her own lab at University College London and elucidated the roles of Pax5, locus contraction and nuclear subcompartmentalization in maintaining allelic exclusion. In 2006, Dr Skok was recruited to New York University School of Medicine, where her lab has revealed the activities of several signaling factors in guiding B cell development and they made the surprising discovery that the RAG proteins and the DNA damage response factor ATM help ensure allelic exclusion at the immunoglobulin gene loci. More recently, those at the Skok lab have turned their attention to understanding how localized and long-range chromatin contacts impact gene regulation in health and disease settings.

Keywords::

• chromosome architecture
• cohesin
• CTCF
• nuclear organization
• regulatory elements

Financial&competing interests disclosure

J Skok is a member of the Epigenomics Editorial Board. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Interview disclosure

The opinions expressed in this interview are those of J Skok and do not necessarily reflect the views of Future Medicine Ltd.