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Christopher Gregg

Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Human Genetics

Neuroscience, Genomics, Genetics, Autism, Addiction, Behavior, Epigenetics

Chris Gregg

 

Molecular Biology Program

Education

B.S. University of Lethbridge

Ph.D. University of Calgary

 

Research

The Gregg lab is a neurogenetics lab working to uncover new knowledge and technologies to improve brain function and reduce the risk for developing mental illnesses and other disorders. Our highly interdisciplinary research program merges genomics, epigenetics, evolutionary biology and big data analysis methods with neuroscience and behavior analysis. Trainees develop expertise in genomics, bioinformatics, phylogenomics, genome engineering, molecular biology, programming, statistical modeling, imaging, disease biology, biotechnology, neurobiology and behavior analysis.

The Gregg Lab has three unique areas of focus:

  1. Do epigenetic mechanisms differentially shape the expression of the maternal and paternal gene copies (alleles) that offspring inherit from their parents? This work is contributing to a new picture of how genes and the environment interact to shape offspring phenotypes and disease risks and inspiring new approaches to disease prognostics.
  2. We are using new phylogenomics approaches to uncover putative master functional regulatory elements in the mammalian genome that shape social behaviors, cancer risk, motivated behaviors and metabolic phenotypes.
  3. We have developed 3D printing, computer vision and machine learning technologies to perform high throughput behavioral screening in mice. We are using this approach to learn how specific regulatory elements and epigenetic mechanisms impact offspring behavioral development and brain function.

References

  1. Ferris E, Abegglen LM, Schiffman JD, Gregg C (2018). Accelerated Evolution in Distinctive Species Reveals Candidate Elements for Clinically Relevant Traits, Including Mutation and Cancer Resistance. Cell Reports 22(10):2742-2755
  2. Huang WC, Ferris E, Cheng T, Hörndli CS, Gleason K, Tamminga C, Wagner JD, Boucher KM, Christian JL, Gregg C (2017). Diverse Non-genetic, Allele-Specific Expression Effects Shape Genetic Architecture at the Cellular Level in the Mammalian Brain. Neuron 93(5):1094-1109.e7.
  3. Bonthuis PJ, Huang WC, Stacher Hörndli CN, Ferris E, Cheng T, Gregg C (2015) Noncanonical Genomic Imprinting Effects in Offspring. Cell Reports 12(6):979-91
  4. Gregg C (2014) Known unknowns for allele-specific expression and genomic imprinting effects. Review. F1000Prime Reports 6:75. doi: 10.12703/P6-75
  5. Gregg C (2010) Parental control over the brain. Science 330(6005):770-1 (Eppendorf winner)
  6. Gregg C, Zhang J, Butler JE, Haig D, Dulac C (2010) Sex-specific parent-of-origin allelic expression in the mouse brain. Science 329(5992):682-5
  7. Gregg C, Zhang J, Weissbourd B, Luo S, Schroth GP, Haig D, Dulac C (2010) High-resolution analysis of parent-of-origin allelic expression in the mouse brain. Science 329(5992):643-8
Last Updated: 6/30/21