Institute of Continuing Education (ICE)
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Dr Constância is passionate about Epigenetics, a really fast moving field that has an important role in biology and which we are only now starting to unravel. He did his doctoral studies on developmental epigenetics at Cambridge, discovering novel mechanisms of epigenetic regulation at imprinted genes. After a short-postdoctoral period, he was awarded a BBSRC Fellowship and joined the University of Cambridge, as a lecturer, with research and teaching focused on epigenetics. He works on gene-environmental interactions, intra-uterine epigenetic programming of adult disease, and regulation of growth and metabolism, using epigenetic technology and biological model systems to address research questions.
My research group is interested in the study of epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation and the cross-talk between the environment and gene activity through such mechanisms. We are studying imprinted genes, how they are epigenetically regulated and their physiological functions, mainly in respect to control of fetal growth, placental function and metabolism. We are also conducting research projects aimed at understanding how nutrition and programmed developmental signals affect high-order chromatin and epigenetic marking. For that purpose we construct 3D maps of the (epi)genome, using genome-wide approaches and biological systems in vitro and in vivo.
European Association for the Study of Diabetes
Epigenesys
