Wolf Reik facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Wolf Reik
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Wolf Reik
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| Nationality | German |
| Awards | EMBO Member FMedSci FRS |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | epigenetics |
| Institutions | Babraham Institute University of Cambridge, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute |
Wolf Reik FRS is a German molecular biologist and a group leader at the Babraham Institute, honorary professor of Epigenetics at the University of Cambridge and associate faculty at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. He was announced as the director of Altos Labs Cambridge Institute when the company launched on 19 January 2022.
Career and research
Wolf Reik studies how additional information can be added to the genome through a range of processes collectively called epigenetics. He discovered some of the key epigenetic mechanisms important for mammalian development, physiology, genome reprogramming, and human diseases. His early work led to the discovery that the molecular mechanism of genomic imprinting is based on DNA methylation. He uncovered non-coding RNA and chromatin looping regulating imprinted genes, which he showed to be involved in fetal nutrition, growth, and disease. He found that the environment influences epigenetic programming in embryos, with changes in gene expression persisting in adults and their offspring.
Awards and honours
Wolf Reik has received many awards, including:
- 2011, elected member of the Academia Europaea
- 2010, elected Fellow of the Royal Society
- 2003, elected to EMBO Membership at the European Molecular Biology Organisation
- 2003 Elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci)
- 1994 awarded the Wellcome Prize in Physiology
See also
- Chronomics
