Dr Michael Jackson
Senior Lecturer
- Email: M.S.Jackson@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 191 241 8677
- Fax: +44 191 241 8666
- Address: Institute of Human Genetics
Newcastle University
International Centre for Life
Central Parkway
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 3BZ
Research Interests
I have two main areas of research:
Human Genome Organisation and Evolution
Although the human genome sequence is nearing completion, we do not understand the higher-order organisational, functional and evolutionary features of our genetic material. Our specific interest is in pericentromeric regions of our genome as these are intrinsically unstable, being prone to gross mutational events such as translocation, inversion, duplication and deletion which often involve hundreds of kilobases of DNA. These gross alterations may have a lasting impact on how we are evolving. However the precise nature and extent of this impact is difficult to assess because pericentromeric DNA contains transitions from transcriptionally active euchromatin to more tightly packed and transcriptionally inactive heterochromatin. This means that even some major structural alterations may not actually affect any genes and may therefore be selectively neutral.
Genetics of Neuroblastoma
Neuroblastoma is one of the most common extracranial solid tumours of childhood. These tumours can spontaneously regress or undergo rapid malignant progression. As a result both prognosis and response to therapy can vary widely. These tumours also show extensive genetic variation and can have one or more characteristic abnormality which indicates a poor clinical prognosis. This genetic, morphological and clinical heterogeneity suggests that Neuroblastoma may progress through a number of distinct pathways.
Selected Publications
- Mudge, J.M. Jackson, M.S. Evolutionary implications of pericentromeric gene expression in humans. Cytogenet Genome Res 2005, 108(1-3), 47-57.
- Lastowska M, Chung YJ, Cheng Ching N, Haber M, Norris MD, Kees UR, Pearson AD, Jackson MS. Regions syntenic to human 17q are gained in mouse and rat neuroblastoma. Genes Chromosomes and Cancer 2004, 40(2), 158-63.
- Jackson, M. Duplicate, decouple, disperse: the evolutionary transience of human centromeric regions. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2003, 13(6), 629-35.
- Ventura M, Mudge JM, Palumbo V, Burn S, Blennow E, Pierluigi M, Giorda R, Zuffardi O, Archidiacono N, Jackson MS, Rocchi M. Neocentromeres in 15q24-26 map to duplicons which flanked an ancestral centromere in 15q25. Genome Research 2003, 13(9), 2059-68.
- Crosier M, Viggiano L, Guy J, Misceo D, Stones R, Wei W, Hearn T, Ventura M, Archidiacono N, Rocchi M, Jackson MS. Human Paralogs of KIAA0187 Were Created through Independent Pericentromeric-Directed and Chromosome-Specific Duplication Mechanisms. Genome Research 2002, 12(1), 67-80.
- Guy J, Spalluto C, McMurray A, Hearn T, Crosier M, Viggiano L, Miolla V, Archidiacono N, Rocchi M, Scott C, Lee PA, Sulston J, Rogers J, Bentley D, Jackson MS. Genomic sequence and transcriptional profile of the boundary between pericentromeric satellites and genes on human chromosome arm 10q. Human Molecular Genetics 2000, 9, 2029-2042.
