James (jim) Davie
Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics
Canada
Biography
Dr. Jim Davie is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics at the University of Manitoba, a Senior Scientist at the CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute, and Scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba. His research interests include epigenetic regulation of gene expression in normal and diseased cells, signal transduction pathways, and biomarkers in the detection of disease. He is the Secretary of the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences. He holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Chromatin Dynamics. Dr. Davie is a Fellow into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada.
Research Interest
Epigenetic is a term used to describe changes in gene expression that are stable between cell divisions. Chromatin modifying enzymes including lysine acetytransferases (KATs), histone deacetylases (HDACs), histone kinases, histone phosphatases, lysine/arginine methyltransferases, lysine/arginine demethylases, ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes and DNA methyltransferases mediate chromatin remodeling and are components of a complex epigenetic network regulating gene expression during development, differentiation and disease. Multistep tumourigenesis is a progression of events resulting from alterations in the processing of the genetic information. These alterations result from stable genetic changes (mutations) in tumour suppressor genes and oncogenes (e.g. RAS) and potentially reversible epigenetic changes. DNA methylation and histone post-translational modifications (PTMs) are two epigenetic mechanisms that are altered in cancer cells.
