Lauryn Deaville

Meet Lauryn Deaville, a DPhil Student in Rebecca Berrens's group. Lauryn studied biochemistry at Oxford before joining the Berrens lab to investigate locus-specific expression of transposable elements during early mammalian development. 

Can you give a brief overview of your career trajectory so far? 

I am currently a DPhil student working on a collaborative project between the Berrens lab at the IDRM and the Hughes lab at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine as part of the BBSRC Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP. I also completed my Biochemistry Undergraduate Masters degree in Oxford, working with the Brockdorff Lab (Department of Biochemistry) to investigate changes in Xist localisation during X chromosome inactivation.

What is your research focus?

Following on from my interest in epigenetics and gene regulation, I am researching transposable element expression in preimplantation development. Around half of the mammalian genome is formed by transposable elements (TEs) or “jumping genes”. These unusual elements can replicate and insert additional copies of themselves into distant genomic loci. This can cause many issues for the host genome, hence most TEs are transcriptionally silenced and not expressed in somatic cells. Interestingly, TE expression is essential for preimplantation development, with many TEs acting as regulatory elements for other genes.

Due to the high sequence identity of individual loci within TE families, it is unknown if expression is from all elements in a family, or only a selection of loci. I aim to assess the mechanism by which specific TEs are activated during early development, as well as the function of expressed loci.

What has been your highlight this past year at the IDRM?

I’ve only been around the IDRM for a few months, so I’ve really enjoyed getting to know other staff and students in the building. I also had a fantastic time at the away day, so that was definitely a highlight.

How have you contributed to IDRM life?

I love getting involved in the different research taking place across the building, particularly by attending the seminars hosted by the department. I hope to get involved in some of the outreach activities later this year.

What do you look forward to most this year?

As this is my first year, I’m looking forward to getting stuck into my research and hopefully some exciting results! I’m keen to attend a transposon conference and hopefully present some of my work.

What do you do outside of the lab/institute?

I’ve recently been horse-riding, which I used to love as a kid. I’ve really enjoyed getting out of Oxford on the weekends to spend some time in the countryside! I also have two kittens, so I spend most of my time playing with them when I’m not in the lab.