Gary Karpen
Biologist Senior Faculty Scientist
Biography
Gary started his scientific career in 1978 as a research technician in the Schubiger lab at the University of Washington, where he worked on imaginal disc formation in Drosophila. He obtained his PhD in the lab of Charles Laird at the University of Washington, where he worked on the role of nucleolus organization in rDNA function. He finished his PhD in Genetics in 1987 and continued to work with Drosophila during his postdoc in the lab of Allan Spradling at the Carnegie Institute.
His work in the Spradling lab spurred his interest in heterochromatin formation and 4 years later he started his own lab at The Salk Institute, La Jolla in 1991. After being in San Diego for 12 years, during which he obtained his professorship at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Gary and his lab moved to the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) in 2003. Gary has been an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley since 2003 and became director of the LBNL Life Sciences Division in 2011.
The Karpen lab has a long-standing interest in chromatin structure and function, with a special emphasis on heterochromatic DNA regions. The current projects in the lab range from centromere formation and function, to the role of lncRNAs, ageing, and DNA repair in heterochromatin formation and maintenance.
Research Interests
Our studies are focused on understanding inheritance, chromatin structure, gene expression, and the organization of chromosomes in the nucleus. Most of our studies have focused on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model for chromosome function in metazoans, which allows us to address mechanisms in animals by synergistically combining molecular, genetic, cell biological and biochemical approaches. Additionally, we have examined the relevance of our findings to human chromosomes, and have demonstrated surprising similarities between these evolutionarily-distant species.
Recent Publications
Related News
Secrets of the Centromere Revealed by First Gapless Human Genome Sequence
The newly completed genome, dubbed T2T-CHM13, represents a major upgrade from the current reference genome, called GRCh38, which is used by doctors when searching for mutations linked to disease, as well as by scientists looking at the evolution of human genetic variation. Among other things, the new DNA sequences reveal never-before-seen detail about the region around the centromere, which is where chromosomes are grabbed and pulled apart when cells divide, ensuring that each daughter cell inherits the correct number of chromosomes.
Exploring Human Origins in the Uncharted Territory of Our Chromosomes
A group of geneticists from Berkeley Lab, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley are unraveling new details about human evolution by studying the uniquely regulated portion of our chromosomes that surround the centromeres. These stretches of DNA – termed centromere-proximal regions (CPRs) – are largely composed of highly repetitive, mostly non-gene-coding sequences that […]
Epigenetic Effects of ‘Genomic Parasites’ Impact Their Evolution
In a study published in eLife, Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE) postdoctoral researcher Grace Lee and senior scientist Gary Karpen investigated the extent to which transposons—bits of DNA that copy themselves and jump to other locations in the genome—harm organisms through epigenetic means, such as changing the way DNA is packaged in cells, and whether this influences how transposons evolve. In a Q&A with the journal, Lee explained the background of the research, the specific question she and Karpen were interested in, and the most illuminating result among their findings.
