Karen L. Reddy, PhD

Primary Academic Title

Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry

Background

Centers and Institutes

• Basic Biomedical Sciences, Institute for
• Epigenetics, Center for
• Metabolism and Obesity Research, Center for

Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

• Q&A with Karen Reddy on what’s missing in a two-dimensional view of a gene
• When DNA Gets Sent to Time-Out
• Geography Matters in the Nucleus
• Nature Meets Nurture

Additional Academic Titles

Associate Professor of Oncology, Joint Appointment in Medicine

Contact for Research Inquiries

855 N. Wolfe Street
Rangos 574
Baltimore, MD 21205

Phone: (443) 287-7216
kreddy4@jhmi.edu

Research Interests

Understanding how the nuclear periphery and other subcompartments contribute to general nuclear architecture and to specific gene regulation

Lab Website

Karen Reddy Laboratory

• The focus of the research in the Reddy Laboratory is to begin to understand how the nuclear periphery and other subcompartments contribute to general nuclear architecture and to specific gene regulation. Our research goals can be broken down into three complementary areas of research: understanding how genes are regulated at the nuclear periphery, deciphering how genes are localized (or "addressed") to specific nuclear compartments and how these processes are utilized in development and corrupted in disease.

Research Summary

The focus of the research in the Reddy lab is to begin to understand how the nuclear periphery and other subcompartments contribute to general nuclear architecture and to specific gene regulation. Understanding the cell biology of genomes and how nuclear architecture controls gene expression is necessary to truly understand biological processes such as development and disease.

Although sequencing of the genome and comparative genome analysis have yielded insights into the regulation and dis-regulation of genetic information, these efforts shed little light into how genomes actually work in vivo. The impact of architectural and cellular organization of genomes on gene activity is a next step to unlocking genetic and epigenetic mechanisms in development and disease. Specifically, they are trying to understand how genes are regulated at the nuclear periphery, decipher how genes are localized (or “addressed”) to specific nuclear compartments and, finally, determine how these processes are utilized in development and corrupted in disease.

Selected Publications

• Bertolino E, Reddy K, Medina KL, Parganas E, Ihle J, and Singh H (2005). “Regulation of interleukin 7-dependent immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable gene rearrangements by transcription factor STAT5.” Nature Immunology 6, 836-843.

• Medina, KL, Pongubala, JMR, Reddy KL, Lancki DW, DeKoter R, Kieslinger M, Grosschedl R, Singh H. (2004). “Assembling a Gene Regulatory Network for Specification of the B Cell Fate.” Developmental Cell 7, 607-617.

• Reddy KL, Johnson KJ, and Singh HS. (2008) Signaling and transcriptional control coordinating V(D)J recombination and B cell development” "V(D)J Recombination", edited by Dr. Ferrier, Landes Bioscience

• Reddy KL, Schlimgen R, Singh HS, Krangel M. (2008).“The Role of Nuclear Localization in Regulating Tcrb Recombination and Allelic Exclusion.” Nature Immunology.

• Reddy KL, Singh HS (2008). “Using molecular tethering to analyze the role of nuclear compartmentalization in the regulation of mammalian gene activity.” Methods. 2008 Jul;45(3):242-51. doi: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2008.06.013. Epub 2008 Jul 9

• Reddy, KL, Zullo, JM, Bertolino E, Singh, HS. (2008) “Mammalian gene repression mediated by inducible repositioning to the nuclear membrane.” Nature, 452(7184): 243-7

• Reynaud D, DeMarco I, Reddy KL, Schjerven H, Bertolino E, Smale ST, Winandy S, Singh HS (2008) “Key features of pro-B cells are specifically regulated by Ikaros.” Nature Immunology.