Neil Brockdorff

Neil Alexander Steven Brockdorff (born 1958) is a British biochemist who is a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and professor in the department of biochemistry at the University of Oxford.^[5][6] Brockdorff's research investigates gene and genome regulation in mammalian development.^[7] His interests are in the molecular basis of X-inactivation, the process that evolved in mammals to equalise X chromosome gene expression levels in XX females relative to XY males.^[7]

Neil Brockdorff FRS FMedSci FRSB
Neil Brockdorff at the Royal Society in London, July 2018
Born	Neil Alexander Steven Brockdorff 1958 (age 65–66)[1]
Education	Hampstead School[1]
Alma mater	University of Sussex (BSc) University of Glasgow (PhD)[2]
Awards	EMBO Member (1999)[3]
Scientific career
Fields	Developmental epigenetics X inactivation[4]
Institutions	University of Oxford
Thesis	The effect of oestradiol-17β on the ribonucleases and ribonuclease inhibitor of immature rat uterus (1985)
Website	www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/research/brockdorff

Education

Brockdorff was educated at Hampstead School, the University of Sussex (BSc)^[1] and the University of Glasgow (PhD).^[2]

Career and research

X inactivation is an important model for understanding how epigenetic mechanisms, for example modification of DNA and histone proteins around which DNA is packaged, contribute to gene regulation in developmental biology.^[7][8] In earlier work Brockdorff demonstrated that an unusual functional RNA molecule, XIST, controls the X inactivation process.^[9][10] Building on this finding he has elucidated key steps in XIST gene regulation during early development, and has defined major pathways through which XIST RNA induces chromosome wide gene silencing.^{[7][11][12][13]}

Awards and honours

Brockdorff is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB).

References

1. Anon (2019). "Brockdorff, Prof. Neil". Who's Who (online Oxford University Press ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. Brockdorff, Neil Alexander Steven (1985). The effect of oestradiol-17β on the ribonucleases and ribonuclease inhibitor of immature rat uterus. jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Glasgow. OCLC 301485805. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.379306.
3. "EMBO MEMBER: Neil Brockdorff". people.embo.org. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
4. Brockdorff, Neil (2017). "Polycomb complexes in X chromosome inactivation". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 372 (1733). doi:10.1098/rstb.2017.0021. ISSN 0962-8436. PMC 5627167. PMID 28947664.
5. "Brockdorff Lab". sites.google.com. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
6. "Prof Neil Brockdorff Page - Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford". www.bioch.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
7. Anon (2018). "Professor Neil Brockdorff FRS". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 6 June 2018. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

   “All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived 2016-11-11)

8. de Napoles, Mariana; Mermoud, Jacqueline E.; Wakao, Rika; Tang, Y.Amy; Endoh, Mitusuhiro; Appanah, Ruth; Nesterova, Tatyana B.; Silva, Jose; Otte, Arie P.; Vidal, Miguel; Koseki, Haruhiko; Brockdorff, Neil (2004). "Polycomb Group Proteins Ring1A/B Link Ubiquitylation of Histone H2A to Heritable Gene Silencing and X Inactivation". Developmental Cell. 7 (5): 663–676. doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2004.10.005. ISSN 1534-5807. PMID 15525528.
9. Penny, Graeme D.; Kay, Graham F.; Sheardown, Steven A.; Rastan, Sohaila; Brockdorff, Neil (1996). "Requirement for Xist in X chromosome inactivation". Nature. 379 (6561): 131–137. Bibcode:1996Natur.379..131P. doi:10.1038/379131a0. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 8538762. S2CID 4329368.
10. Brockdorff, Neil; Ashworth, Alan; Kay, Graham F.; McCabe, Veronica M.; Norris, Dominic P.; Cooper, Penny J.; Swift, Sally; Rastan, Sohaila (1992). "The product of the mouse Xist gene is a 15 kb inactive X-specific transcript containing no conserved ORF and located in the nucleus". Cell. 71 (3): 515–526. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(92)90519-I. ISSN 0092-8674. PMID 1423610. S2CID 19889657.
11. Heard, Edith; Brockdorff, Neil (2017). "Preface: X-chromosome inactivation and Mary Lyon". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 372 (1733). doi:10.1098/rstb.2016.0353. ISSN 0962-8436. PMC 5627156. PMID 28947653.
12. Neil Brockdorff publications from Europe PubMed Central
13. Stock, Julie K.; Giadrossi, Sara; Casanova, Miguel; Brookes, Emily; Vidal, Miguel; Koseki, Haruhiko; Brockdorff, Neil; Fisher, Amanda G.; Pombo, Ana (2007). "Ring1-mediated ubiquitination of H2A restrains poised RNA polymerase II at bivalent genes in mouse ES cells". Nature Cell Biology. 9 (12): 1428–1435. doi:10.1038/ncb1663. hdl:10261/61600. ISSN 1465-7392. PMID 18037880. S2CID 2317691.

 This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.