Toxicity and Transcription: The Impact of Environmental Exposure on RNA Pol II Pausing

For this seminar, Dr. Watts will cover how we think about how environmental exposures can affect transcription regulation. His group is interested in understanding how genes are transcribed.

About the speaker: Jason A. Watts MD-PhD is a nephrologist-scientist in the Epigenetics and Stem Cell Laboratory at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. He completed his M.D. and Ph.D. at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, were he worked with Kenneth Zaret, studying the pioneer transcription factor FoxA. Dr. Watts subsequently completed residency in Internal Medicine at Duke University and clinical fellowship in Nephrology at the University of Michigan. He did his T32 research fellowship in the laboratory of Vivian Cheung studying the regulation of RNA polymerase pausing. At Michigan he was the recipient of the American Society of Nephrology-Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program award in 2019. In 2020 he moved to the NIEHS as a Stadtman Investigator, where his research focuses on the role of nucleic acid structures in the regulation of gene transcription in the kidney in response to environmental and physiologic stress. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at Duke University, and is a staff nephrologist at the Durham VA Hospital, and has been named an NIH Distinguished Scholar.

THIS IS A HYBRID SEMINAR WITH IN-PERSON & REMOTE ATTENDANCE OPTIONS.

This seminar will be held in Field Auditorium (room 1112), Grainger Hall.
Visit the seminar website for Zoom registration info to tune in virtually.
Both attendance options (in person and virtual) are free and open to all.