Dr James Thorne

Dr James L Thorne (Associate Professor of Nutrition, Epigenetics, and Cancer). Dr Thorne’s group investigates the interaction between nutrition, epigenetics, and gene regulation in cancer, with particular interest in the nuclear receptor class of ligand activated transcription factors. This superfamily contains 48 distinct members in humans, many of which are subject to alternative splicing and post-translational regulation. Dr Thorne’s lab uses molecular biology, cell biology, and patient derived material in combination with -omics to understand the complexity of genomic binding site decision making by nuclear receptors and their splice variants, and how ligands and co-factors introduce further selectivity into loci binding patterns. Ultimately the goal of this work is to develop more accurate prognostic an functional biomarkers in cancer.