1 January 2025 – Dr Peter Sarkies New Committee Member

The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Dr Peter Sarkies as a member of the committee as a representative of Genomics, beginning his four-year term in January 2025.

Biography:

I started out in science as an undergraduate studying Biochemistry at Oxford. I then moved to Cambridge to do a PhD in the lab of Julian Sale at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where I became interested in epigenetics. I continued working on epigenetics as a postdoc in Eric Miska’s lab, also in Cambridge. It was there that I started working on C. elegans and became interested in the evolution of small non-coding RNAs across nematodes. I started my own group in 2014 at the London Institute of Medical Sciences, where I established a team to investigate the evolution of epigenetic mechanisms, including small non-coding RNAs and DNA methylation, across eukaryotes with a particular focus on nematodes. In 2021 I moved to take up an Associate Professorship at Oxford where my lab continues to work on the connections between epigenetics and evolution, in particular looking at how epigenetic mechanisms could drive evolution of parasitism in nematodes. Outside of the lab I enjoy literature, learning maths(!), growing vegetables and listening to heavy metal music! I’m very excited about joining the Genetics Society committee, representing Genomics in particular, and helping with the great work the society is doing.