PHILLIP WULFRIDGE, PH.D. 吳敦仁
My career-long interest in epigenetics as a key interface between genome and environment began in high school in California, when I first learned about the agouti mouse model, and continued throughout my undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral studies. My Ph.D. work in Dr. Andrew Feinberg’s group at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland) focused on how genetic variation in DNA methylation can affect responses of different mouse genotypes to diets and drug treatments. My interest in other epigenetic factors that might similarly regulate the genome led me to join Dr. Kavitha Sarma's lab at The Wistar Institute (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) where I identified roles for R-loop structures in the regulation of genome organization.
As a new member of the faculty at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica (Nangang, Taiwan), my key interests are in building a collaborative research team that will tackle ongoing questions in how R-loops contribute to cellular function and disease progression, as well as mentoring and nurturing the next generation of scientists through training in benchwork, bioinformatics, and scientific communication.
Also, despite what my last name might indicate, I do speak Mandarin! (Language Policy)
EDUCATION
- B.S. in Human Biology, 2008-2012 - University of California, San Diego
- Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, 2012-2019 - Andrew P. Feinberg Lab, Johns Hopkins University
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2019-2025 - Kavitha Sarma Lab, The Wistar Institute
TEACHING
- Course Designer and Instructor, 2025 - Bologna Summer School of Genome Regulation