Biological Sciences

Profile

Alan graduated with a BSc in Biomolecular Science at Portsmouth in 1976 and stayed on in Prof. Crane-Robinson's laboratory for his PhD studies on modifications of chromatin structure. He worked in Prof. Morton Bradbury's lab (Davis, California) in 1980 and 1981 analysing acetylated chromatin using high-resolution melting studies. Alan returned to Portsmouth for a series of postdoctoral posts and characterised the usage of acetylation sites in the core histones, determined the attachment site of ubiquitin in uH2B and mapped histone modifications at a variety of chicken genes using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments.

Research Interests

Alan was appointed as senior lecturer in 1991 and Reader in 2005 and continues his research in structural and functional studies of chromatin, with a particular focus on 'where' modified histones and histone variants are located in the genome and 'when' they appear in development. Other research interests include; investigating molecular approaches to improving detection of breast cancer metastases and development of prognostic indicators (in collaboration Mr C. Yiangou, Breast Care Centre, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust), the role of chromatin-associated proteins, such as RAR/RXR and the nucleosome assembly protein (NAP), in embryo development and the taxonomic classification of brown sea weeds using their DNA sequence (in collaboration with Drs Sharpe, Guille and Fletcher respectively, Portsmouth).

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Publications Before 2008

“Regulation of myofibroblast transdifferentiation by DNA methylation and MeCP2: implications for wound healing and fibrogenesis.” Mann, J., Oakley, F., Akiboye, F., Elsharkawy, A., Thorne, A.W., Mann, D.A. (2007). Cell Death Differ. 14, 275-285.

“Developmental activation of the lysozyme gene in chicken macrophage cells is linked to core histone acetylation at its enhancer elements.” Myers, F.A., Lefevre, P., Mantouvalou, E., Bruce, K., Lacroix, C., Bonifer C, Thorne, A.W., Crane-Robinson, C. (2006). Nucleic Acids Res. 34, 4025-35.

“The replacement histone H2A.Z in a hyperacetylated form is a feature of active genes in the chicken.” Bruce, K., Myers, F.A., Mantouvalou, E., Lefevre, P., Greaves, I., Bonifer C., Tremethick D.J., Thorne, A.W., Crane-Robinson, C. (2005) Nucleic Acids Res. 33, 5633-9.

“Spatial distribution of Di- and tri-methyl lysine 36 of histone H3 at active genes.” Bannister AJ, Schneider R, Myers FA, Thorne AW, Crane-Robinson C, Kouzarides T.” (2005) J Biol Chem. 280, 17732-6.

“Histone H3 lysine 4 methylation patterns in higher eukaryotic genes.” Schneider R., Bannister A.J., Myers F.A., Thorne A.W., Crane-Robinson C., Kouzarides T. (2004). Nat. Cell. Biol. 6, 73-77.

“Acetylation of Histone H2B Mirrors that of H4 and H3 at the Chicken beta-Globin Locus but not at Housekeeping Genes.” Myers F.A., Chong W., Evans D.R., Thorne A.W., Crane-Robinson C. (2003) J Biol Chem. 278, 36315-36322.

“Thyroid hormone-regulated enhancer blocking: cooperation of CTCF and thyroid hormone receptor.” Lutz M., Burke L.J., LeFevre P., Myers F.A., Thorne A.W., Crane-Robinson C., Bonifer C., Filippova G.N., Lobanenkov V., Renkawitz R. (2003). EMBO J. 22, 1579-1587.

“Construction of a Human Genomic Library Enriched in Transcriptionally Active Sequences (aDNA library).” Pelling A.L., Thorne, A.W. and Crane-Robinson, C. (2000). Genome Res. 6, 874-86.

“DNA methylation models histone acetylation.” Eden, S., Hashimshony, I., Keshet, H., Cedar, H. and Thorne, A.W. (1998). Nature 394, 842.

Teaching interests

Alan is a Higher Education Academy Fellow and contributes to courses in maths, biochemistry and chromatin structure and gene regulation.

Life outside the university

Alan can often be found making small holes in pieces of card at Fort Purbrook air rifle and pistol target shooting club.