Douglas Vernimmen [GL]

Group Leader

Current Research

Our general research interest is to understand how vertebrate genes are switched on and off during differentiation to control cell fate and to specify different lineages. We study many aspects of chromatin biology with a specific focus on remote regulatory elements (i.e. those remote genomic regions controlling gene expression at large distance). Chromatin Biology is a very strong research area at the University of Edinburgh and the research conducted at the Roslin Institute takes advantage of using many species to develop comparative (epi)genomics approaches to understand the complexity of gene regulation during evolution. My group has fully joined the aquaculture community in 2024 and are using skeletal muscle formation (myogenesis) in Salmonids as a very valued teleost species in aquaculture but also as a paradigm to study evolutionary biology.

Favourite aquaculture species

Atlantic salmon!

Douglas Vernimmen in academic robes

Background

Oct 2012 – presentGroup Leader at The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh.
Feb 2004 - Sept 2012Postdoctoral Fellow MRC Molecular Haematology Unit, (Prof. Doug Higgs) Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, U.K. 
May 2003 - Jan 2004 Postdoc, Pathology Dept., (Prof. J. Boniver) Pathology Institute, Liege University, Belgium.
Sept 1997 - May 2003 Doctoral Fellow of the National Funds for Scientific Research (F.N.R.S), Molecular Oncology Laboratory (Dr. R. Winkler). Pathology Institute, Liege University.
1994-1996:MSc, Molecular Biology, University of Liege
1992-1994:BSc, Biology, University of Liege

Interests, hopes and dreams

Beside my scientific work, I am the recipient of >400 awards and distinctions for my international contribution to Photography and the author of the Awards-Winning Photography Book ‘Oxford Through the Lens’ (ACC Art Books, published in October 2016; Contributors: Sir John Hood, Professor Joe M Crook and Colin Dexter). These skills have been exploited to also produce short documentaries to portray e.g. Student Experience or Laboratory Training of undergraduate students.

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