Site Specific and Global Epigenomic Editing Principles and Applications

Dr. Feng C. Zhou is Professor Emertus of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana. In his research, Dr. Zhou studies genetic contributions to gene expression that underpin the neurochemical and neuroanatomical differences contributing to alcohol addiction. His previous research has demonstrated that alcohol alters expression cohorts of neural specification genes, and cell cycling genes in the canonical developmental pathways. In recent years, Dr. Zhou has expanded his research to include the genomics and epigenetics of alcoholism, epigenetic editing by optogenetics, cell-wide DNA de-methylation and re-methylation of purkinje neurons in the developing cerebellum, and environmental alterations of epigenetics prior to the birth, among other topics. Dr. Zhou has published widely in scientific, peer reviewed journals including Scientific Reports, PLoS ONE, Oncotarget, Frontiers in Genetics, Brain Research, Cell Transplantation, and Alcohol.

Dr. Tollefsbol is a Distinguished Professor of Biology and a Senior Scientist in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, Integrative Center for Aging Research, Nutrition Obesity Research Center, University Wide Microbiome Center, and the Comprehensive Diabetes Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is Director of the UAB Cell Senescence Culture Facility which he established in 1999. Dr. Tollefsbol trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Research Professor with members of the National Academy of Science at Duke University and the University of North Carolina. He earned doctorates in molecular biology and osteopathic medicine from the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center and his bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Houston. He has received prior funding from the NCI, NHLBI, NIMH and other federal institutes as well as the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) among many other sources.