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Our lab explores: (1) epigenetic mechanisms by which information in the genome is expressed in a stable and heritable fashion through cell division; (2) molecular mechanisms by which cells commit to specific fates during animal development; (3) genetic programming of cell fate decisions; (4) mechanisms by which an embryo counts the number of sex chromosomes to determine its sex; (5) mechanisms by which chromosomes adopt the correct structure to achieve faithful segregation and hence genome stability; (6) the control of recombination during the formation of sperm and eggs; (7) the control of X-chromosome-wide gene expression through the process of dosage compensation. We combine genetic, genomic, proteomic, molecular, biochemical, and cell biological approaches to study these questions in the model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans, a round worm.
Featured Science

Recent Publications
Wood AJ, Lo TW, Zeitler B, Pickle CS, Ralston EJ, Lee AH, Amora R, Miller JC, Leung E, Meng X, Zhang L, Rebar EJ, Gregory PD, Urnov FD, Meyer BJ. (2011) Targeted genome editing across species using ZFNs and TALENs. Science 333,* 307. *These authors contributed equally to this work. [PDF] [Supp.PDF]
Pferdehirt, R. R., Kruesi, W. S., Meyer, B. J. (2011) An MLL/COMPASS Subunit Functions in the C. elegans Dosage Compensation Complex to Target X Chromosomes for Transcriptional Regulation of Gene Expression. Genes & Dev. 25, 499-515. [PDF] [Supp.PDF]
Meyer, B. J. (2010) Targeting X chromosomes for repression. Current Opinion in Genetics & Development 20, 179-189. [PDF]
Mets, D. G., Meyer, B. J. (2009) A Condensin Complex Regulates DSB Distribution and thus Crossover Frequency by Controlling Chromosome Structure. Cell 139, 73-86.[PDF][Supp.PDF]

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Our lab is affiliated with Howard Hughes Medical Institute and UC Berkeley. We are in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.