deborah.thurtle@ucsf.edu

Research Interests

Transcriptional Regulatory Factors bind to regulatory elements to finely tune the expression of the appropriate target gene. Regulating only the appropriate target gene is integral to the fidelity of the cell’s transcriptional regulatory network, yet how a transcriptional regulatory factor regulates only the appropriate target gene is not well understood. I aim to identify the boundary effectors that ensure correct transcriptional regulation of the target gene and prevent aberrant regulation of neighboring genes by transcriptional regulatory factors. I am performing genetic screens in C. elegans, exploiting the compact genome of the worm,to discover boundary effectors that insulate the Nuclear Hormone Receptor, NHR-25.

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy in Molecular and Cell Biology, 2008-2014

    University of California, Berkeley

    Advisor: Jasper Rine

  • Bachelor of Science, summa cum lade, in Biology8, 2004-200

    Santa Clara University

    • Fellowships and Awards

  • 2010-2013 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow

    • Selected Publications

  • Thurtle DM and Rine J. The Molecular Topography of the Yeast Silent Mating Loci. Genes and Development (2014).
  • Teytelman L*, Thurtle DM*, Rine J and van Oudenaarden A. Highly expressed loci are vulnerable to misleading ChIP localization of multiple unrelated proteins. Proc Natl Acad Sci. (2013). *These authors contributed equally to this work.

    • Hobbies

    I love playing the cello, hiking, board games and playing with my cat.