| Meet the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Reid Alisch Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery School of Medicine & Public Health |
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Research area Role of DNA methylation in human neurological health and disease processes. Temporal and spatial changes of genome-wide DNA methylation throughout neurodevelopment and due to prenatal/early life stimulus.
What excites you about your work?
“What you eat, your life experiences, how much you exercise, all of these things can modify your DNA methylation levels. DNA methylation doesn’t change your DNA, but the presence or absence of DNA methylation can change the way your DNA is used and whether or how much genes are expressed.”
What do you hope to achieve?
“Our hope is that we can use molecular approaches and maybe some of the genes defined here to refine our diagnosis at the individual level. This objective approach could make diagnosis and treatment more precise for each individual.”
Reid and David Plante have collaborated to uncover how DNA methylation plays a role in sleep – something so fundamental to human health. Their complementary expertise makes this an exciting project with great potential.
– Jennifer Gottwald, WARF, Director of Licensing
Want to learn more?
Jennifer Gottwald, [email protected], 608.960.9854