Eric Campos, PhD
Research Institute
Scientist
Genetics & Genome Biology
University of Toronto
Assistant Professor
Department of Molecular Genetics
Phone: 416-813-7400
Fax: 416-813-4931
Email: eric.campos@sickkids.ca
For more information, visit:
Brief Biography
- Post-doctoral Fellowship, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York University School of Medicine (in Danny Reinberg’s laboratory)
- PhD, the Experimental Medicine program, University of British Columbia
- B.Sc., University of Ottawa
Research Interests
- Epigenetics & Chromatin Biology
- Histones & Histone Chaperones
- Cell Division & Carcinogenesis
Research Activities
Dr. Eric Campos' laboratory focuses on the mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance: self-perpetuating changes on chromatin that influence gene expression independently of DNA sequence.
Histones play a critical structural role by organizing and packaging DNA. Our genome encodes numerous histones variants, all of which are subject to a large number of posttranslational modifications. These variants, and modifications, help dictate which proteins bind local chromatin structures and therefore carry tremendous influence on the expression of underlying genes. This information can be transmitted through numerous cell cycles, and is believed to be epigenetic.
While histones carry important information, they are also routinely displaced and modified as DNA is replicated, transcribed, and repaired. Dr. Campos and his team aim to understand the spatiotemporal regulation of epigenetic factors that cells utilize to maintain a transcriptional ‘memory’ through cell division. Emphasis is not only placed on the biochemical characterization of histones, histone chaperones and the protein complexes that help perpetuate epigenetic information under normal circumstances, but also on how the process goes awry in a number of childhood cancers.
Publications
Full publication list is available through PubMed.
Selected Publications
Campos EI, Smits AH, Kang YH, Landry S, Escobar TM, Nayak S, Ueberheide BM, Durocher D, Vermeulen M, Hurwitz J, Reinberg D. (2015) Analysis of the Histone H3.1 Interactome: A Suitable Chaperone for the Right Event. Mol Cell. 60(4):697-709. PMID: 26527279
Campos EI, Stafford JM, Reinberg D. (2014) Epigenetic inheritance: histone bookmarks across generations. Trends Cell Biol. 24(11):664-74. PMID: 25242115
Kanno T, Kanno Y, LeRoy G, Campos E, Sun HW, Brooks SR, Vahedi G, Heightman TD, Garcia BA, Reinberg D, Siebenlist U, O'Shea JJ, Ozato K. (2014) BRD4 assists elongation of both coding and enhancer RNAs by interacting with acetylated histones. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 21(12):1047-57. PMID: 25383670.
Campos EI, Fillingham J, Li G, Zheng H, Voigt P, Kuo WH, Seepany H, Gao Z, Day LA, Greenblatt JF, Reinberg D. (2010) The program for processing newly synthesized histones H3.1 and H4. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 17(11):1343-51.
PMID: 20953179
Campos EI, Reinberg D. (2010) New chaps in the histone chaperone arena. Genes Dev. 24(13):1334-8. PMID: 20595228
Campos EI, Reinberg D. (2009) Histones: annotating chromatin. Annu Rev Genet. 43:559-99. PMID: 19886812