Robin Allshire is a world leader in epigenetics and chromosome biology, the vital branches of biology that concern inheritance and reproduction. He has made crucial advancements to our understanding of chromosomes — the structures that contain the genetic material of animal and plant cells.
His elegant work on chromosomes in yeast has revealed crucial findings, including that parts of the DNA sequence are conserved between generations, and that as a person ages the ends of their chromosomes shorten. He has also demonstrated that a portion of DNA previously thought to be ‘junk’ is a vital part of the chromosome machinery.
He currently runs the Allshire Lab at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh, and is a principal research fellow of the Wellcome Trust. He was also elected a member of EMBO in 1988 and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2002.
Subject groups
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Molecules of Life
Biochemistry and molecular biology, Cell biology (incl molecular cell biology)
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Cell Biology
Genetics (excluding population genetics)
