Who Am I?

First and foremost, hello and welcome, my name is Christen and I am a graduate student in the Cell and Molecular Biology program at San Francisco State University. I am in the Chu lab where we do research on histone variants and exploring their role in male fertility and spermatogenesis in our model C. elegans. 

Immunostain (Methanol/Acetone fixative) of HTAS-1 in the male germline

Z stack 3D image using confocal microscopy of both DAPI (blue) and HTAS-1 (green) in the male germline

Since this is a blog that explores the topic of epigenetics, how does a person who does research focused on male fertility express interest in mental and behavioral health? My first introduction to the topic of epigenetics was actually in a course I took as a undergraduate student taught by my PI, Dr. Chu. In molecular genetics we learned varying ways in which genes are able to be regulated and expressed, one of those ways is how environmental factors influence an epigenetic mechanism to either turn on or off a gene. Understanding this significance of environmental influence on gene expression was a topic that I took great interest in. Thinking about these implications, I began exploring ways in which environmental factors such as drugs and environmental chemicals could influence a mechanism that affects gene regulation and eventually lead to possible endpoints of mental illness and behavioral disorders. I am an advocate for breaking the stigma that is associated with mental illness and behavioral disorders. Therefore, this blog is a great outlet to allow this interest to be expressed. 

Thank you for taking a little extra time to get to know me briefly! I appreciate your contribution to this page.