Coral Y. Zhou
- Assistant Professor
- MOLECULAR BIOSCIENCES
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Biography —
I am a chromatin biologist interested in understanding how the 3D genome is dynamically organized in response to the demands of the cell and developing organism. My approach is integrative and multi-disciplinary, combining my extensive training as a biochemist, biophysicist, cell and developmental biologist. As a mentor, I am passionate about graduate education, the power of fundamental science, and creating a sense of belonging for all curious minds through wellness and a growth mindset.
I was born in Beijing and immigrated at the age of three to the suburbs of Maryland near Washington D.C.. I attended the University of Maryland, College Park where I majored in Biochemistry and worked as an HHMI Undergraduate Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Rokita. I then moved to the west coast and earned my Ph.D. from the University of California, San Francisco under the guidance of Dr. Geeta Narlikar, where I studied the biochemical mechanisms of ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes that facilitate DNA damage repair and transcription. After graduate school I joined the laboratory of Dr. Rebecca Heald at the University of California, Berkeley as a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellow to study chromatin architecture in the context of cell division and early development, using eggs and embryos from the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis.
Research —
Genome size (the number of base pairs of DNA) varies by six orders of magnitude across the tree of life but we do not know how the extensive molecular machinery that packages, transcribes, and repairs the genome has evolved along with these major changes in size. Additionally, genomes are themselves physical entities, with specific size and shape constraints that must also fit and function within the constraints of the highly dynamic cell.
Within this context, my laboratory asks: How do genomes adapt to major changes in size? We aim to dissect the molecular mechanisms of genome size control across the cell cycle, during early development and across evolution. We primarily utilize the African clawed frog Xenopus, which produce thousands of giant eggs and embryos that can be manipulated ex vivo. Additionally, we use different Xenopus species with varying genome copy number (ploidy), allowing us dissect the natural mechanisms of adaptation to huge changes in genome size.
To tackle these questions, we use a combination of advanced microscopy, biochemistry, embryology, molecular biology and genomics to create physical models of 3D genome organization and dynamics. Ultimately our work will significantly advance our understanding of the physical limitations of genome evolution, creating testable hypotheses for how these rules are bent or broken in cancer cells with abnormally large genomes.