Marnie Blewitt is

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...

of a division at

WEHI WEHI (), previously known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, is Australia's oldest medical research institute. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who won the Nobel Prize in 1960 for ...

, which focuses on

X-inactivation X-inactivation (also called Lyonization, after English geneticist Mary Lyon) is a process by which one of the copies of the X chromosome is inactivated in therian female mammals. The inactive X chromosome is silenced by being packaged into ...

, and is engaged in research on the role of polycomb-group proteins in

hematopoietic stem cell Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are the stem cells that give rise to other blood cells. This process is called haematopoiesis. In vertebrates, the very first definitive HSCs arise from the ventral endothelial wall of the embryonic aorta within t ...

function.

Scientific career

Education

She completed undergraduate studies in 1999 at The University of Sydney, with honours and a double major of

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

and

Genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

. As part of her doctoral research at the same institution under the supervision of Associate Professor

Emma Whitelaw Emma Whitelaw is an eminent molecular biologist and NHMRC Australia Fellow at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and is among Australia's leading researchers of epigenetics. Whitelaw was the first to demonstrate epigenetic inheritance ...

, she designed a sensitised mutagenesis screen to find new epigenetic modifiers in mice, for which she was awarded the Genetics Society of Australia DG Catcheside prize for the best PhD in genetics. She moved to Melbourne at the end of 2005 to accept a Peter Doherty post-doctoral fellowship in

Doug Hilton Douglas "Doug" James Hilton (born 13 June 1964 in England) is an Australian molecular biologist. He is the Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia and Head of the Department of Medical Biology ...

's lab from 2005 to 2009, before becoming laboratory head in January 2010.

Research interests

Blewitt's lab focuses on molecular mechanisms behind epigenetic control of gene expression. Her lab has worked on one of the mouse mutants identified in the mutagenesis screen, identifying a critical role for the protein Smchd1 in

X inactivation X-inactivation (also called Lyonization, after English geneticist Mary Lyon) is a process by which one of the copies of the X chromosome is inactivated in therian female mammals. The inactive X chromosome is silenced by being packaged into a ...

in cancer. Other research activities include the study of the roles of polycomb-group proteins in

hematopoietic Haematopoiesis (, from Greek , 'blood' and 'to make'; also hematopoiesis in American English; sometimes also h(a)emopoiesis) is the formation of blood cellular components. All cellular blood components are derived from haematopoietic stem cells. ...

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...

function.

Teaching and public service

Marnie Blewitt conducted a massive open online course in

epigenetics In biology, epigenetics is the study of stable phenotypic changes (known as ''marks'') that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix '' epi-'' ( "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are "o ...

at Coursera starting on 28 April 2014.

Awards and honors

* Genetics Society of Australia D.G. Catcheside Prize (2006) * National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowship (2006) * L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science (2009) * National Health and Medical Research Council Grants (2008, 2011, 2012, 2013) * Australian Academy of Science Ruth Stephens Gani Medal (2009)

Personal life

Blewitt is married and has two children.

Selected publications

* Blewitt ME, Gendrel A-V, Pang Z, Sparrow DB, Whitelaw N, Craig J, Apedaile A, Hilton DJ, Dunwoodie SL, Brockdorff N, Kay GK and Whitelaw E (2008) ''SmcHD1, a protein containing a structural maintenance of chromosomes hinge domain, has a critical role in X inactivation''. Nat Genet May; 40(5):663-9. * Majewski IJ, Blewitt M, deGraaf C, McManus E, Bahlo M, Hyland C, Smyth GK, Corbin J, Metcalf D, Alexander WS, and Hilton DJ (2008) ''Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) restricts hematopoietic stem cell identity''. PLoS Biology 15 Apr; 6(4):e93. * Blewitt ME, Vickaryous NK, Hemley SJ, Ashe A, Bruxner TJ, Preis JI, Arkell R and Whitelaw E (2005) ''An ENU screen for genes involved in variegation in the mouse''. ''Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A'' 102(21): 7629–7634. * Ashe A, Morgan DK, Whitelaw NC, Bruxner TJ, Vickaryous NK, Cox LL, Butterfield NC, Wicking C, Blewitt ME, Wilkins S, Anderson G, Cox TX and Whitelaw E. (2008) ''A genome-wide screen for modifiers of transgene variegation identifies genes with critical roles in development''. Genome Biol Vol 9 (12) R182 * Chong S, Vickaryous N, Ashe A, Zamudio N, Youngson N, Hemley S, Stopka T, Skoultchi A, Matthews J, Scott H, de Kretser D, O’Bryan M, Blewitt M and Whitelaw E (2007) ''Modifiers of epigenetic reprogramming show paternal effects in the mouse''. ''Nat Genet'' 2007 May;39(5):614-22. Epub 2007 Apr 22. * Blewitt ME, Vickaryous NK, Paldi A Koseki H and Whitelaw E (2006) ''Dynamic reprogramming of DNA methylation at an epigenetically sensitive allele in mice''. PLoS Genetics April 2(4) e49. * Rakyan VK, Chong S, Champ ME, Cuthbert PC, Morgan HD, Luu KVK and Whitelaw E (2003) ''Transgenerational inheritance of epigenetic states at the murine AxinFu allele occurs following maternal and paternal transmission''. ''Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A'' 100(5): 2538–43

References

External links

Marnie Blewitt
Faculty page,

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute WEHI (), previously known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, is Australia's oldest medical research research institute, institute. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who won the Nobe ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blewitt, Marnie Living people Australian geneticists University of Sydney alumni Academic staff of the University of Melbourne Australian medical researchers Australian molecular biologists WEHI alumni Women molecular biologists Australian women scientists Year of birth missing (living people) WEHI staff