EpiGenie is a team of folks who scour through PubMed, watch out for interesting epigenetics press releases, conduct interviews with epigenetics researchers, and work closely with the technology providers to stay on top of the most applicable work driving epigenetics-related research. Some of us have held marketing positions, developing and promoting products at tool companies, while others have held R&D and technical writing positions. Some of us have PhDs while others have ADD. At some point we’ve all held a pipet, but traded it in for a wireless mouse and a different type of carpal tunnel.
Want to visit us? We’d love to have you, so if you’re ever in Del Mar (CA), please look us up and we’ll buy you a beer or coffee or something. Actually, Del Mar is where our P.O. Box is located, but there’s a really nice copy machine next to it that doubles as a cocktail table for social events. Most of our team is scattered all over the country and thanks to this neat invention called the internet, it works.
Epigenetics Research Community
Dang you look good!
That’s right…the most important component of EpiGenie is the researchers in academic and industrial labs that bust their buns every day giving us something to write about. We know you didn’t go into the field for fame, but we also know it’s nice to be recognized for your contributions. So if you want to share your stance on a topic or call attention to a new method you developed step up to the mic and let us know about it.
Pete J :: Founder & Executive Editor
It took Pete a few years of research at Indiana University and various R&D positions at Abbott Laboratories, Immunogenex, and Gen-Probe to realize he had 10 thumbs in the lab and that it was safer for himself and the broader research community if he head into marketing. After seven years marketing and leading strategic product development for research tool companies Genset and Invitrogen, Pete got the entrepreneurial itch, ditched the cube, and headed to the beach town Florianopolis, Brazil to help a friend stoke the marketing furnace of his surf tour operation.
It was during this time that the foundation for EpiGenie was conceived and developed. After hundreds of caipirinhas and late nights of samba, Pete returned back to Del Mar, California to be closer to the research community in San Diego and the States in general, where he works closely with his all-star cast of technical writers, web developers, and most importantly, the innovative researchers that give EpiGenie something to broadcast. When Pete isn’t working on EpiGenie, you can find him surfing in North County, San Diego or juggling his two sons.
Ben L :: Epigenetics Editor & Technical Writer
Ben is a fellow researcher on both the molecular and informatics ends. After a B.Sc. in Genetics from Western University (Canada), he went on to pursue his love for neuroepigenomic research. He completed his Ph.D in the lab Shiva Singh at Western, where they and a talented team investigated neurodevelopmental disease. After convincing the Canadian government to send him to a land without winter, he’s continuing on with his epigenomic passion as a postdoc in the lab of Janine LaSalle at the University of California, Davis.
Ben’s been reading EpiGenie ever since Professor Singh pointed him that way. Then, on a spring’s day, during some intense manuscript writing, the impulse to contribute kicked in and Ben decided to shoot Pete an e-mail. One phone call lead to another and an eventual trip to the land of sunshine, which had him California Dreamin’. Ben’s been a part of the team since 2013 and can’t get enough of your research into Epigenetics, Stem Cells, and Synthetic Biology. Outside of the research world, when he’s not busy taking photos, enjoying nature, or consuming excessive amounts of sushi, you can usually find him with his wife and their glaring of too many felines.
Stuart A :: Stem Cell Editor & Technical Writer
While not out biking, and running through the streets, parks, and beaches of sunny Valencia (Spain, not California!), Stuart is chained to his desk writing about everything and anything in the stem cell world. Hailing from the icy tundra that lies between Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland (think Mordor), Stuart was a huge Nirvana fan, but the long hair and ripped jeans went missing a long time ago, and he swapped them for a lab coat and goggles.
A PhD in cancer epigenetics in Glasgow was followed by post-doctoral studies in ESCs and iPSCs in Newcastle (UK) and Valencia. After doing far too much Q-PCR, he traded the pipette for the pen, and now dedicates most of his time to sitting on the beach drinking ice cold Spanish beer, ahem……..writing, reading, and enjoying the fantastic daily occurrences in stem cell research.
Carlos F :: Technical Writer
Raised and educated in Buenos Aires, Carlos can now be found enjoying the sights of Amsterdam where he is an Assistant Professor in Neuroscience focusing on epigenetic regulation of adult neural stem cells. He first became acquainted with EpiGenie after we featured some of his dazzling research findings at a conference a few years back.
One thing led to another and now he’s living the fast-paced lifestyle of a contributing Technical Writer for us. Between wielding a pipette and performing intense grant writing he still finds time to log in to EpiGenie to take in latest articles of interest and suggest creative new content for us. For Carlos “EpiGenie is like an antidepressant,” and that makes it a stimulant for the rest of us.
When he’s not in the lab or in front of some digital device, you can find Carlos exploring his musical side from a past life and learning to bow the double bass.
Eric D :: Technical Writer
Eric is a current PhD candidate in Genetics at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. While his projects and interests have shifted over his time at Western, epigenetics has captured his interest and will no doubt become the star to guide his scientific career. After finishing top of his class in the honors genetics program, Eric joined the lab of Shiva Singh as a grad student to bring an epigenetic focus to the lab’s fetal alcohol project.
Eric thought he was giving up his love of creative writing by going into genetics, but EpiGenie has provided an e-home to keep the love alive. But Eric’s not ready to hang up his pipette just yet; he still enjoys using many of the techniques he writes about for EpiGenie. At home in London, Eric spends his down time walking his Great Dane and navigating a new roles as a husband and father.
Robert C :: Synthetic Biology Editor & Technical Writer
Robert is a synthetic biologist who focused more on physics and math at Small Liberal Arts College, but got into the whole biology thing for his PhD at Big Ivy League University. He discovered EpiGenie and met its fearless founder via Networking (it works!) and jumped at the chance to ooze his creative juices onto the internet at a vibrant site where they would sink in and be read, rather than running off into the cyber-gutters of random blogs.
While an active pipet wrangler, RC finds inspiration by taking a step back every once in a while to be amazed by all the crazy stuff we know and can do, and he is enjoying sharing with you what he sees. He was also a top 10 finalist in the Nature Biotechnology science writing contest. In his free time, he can often be found traveling by foot for medium-long distances at a moderately strenuous pace to end up in the same place he started. Occasionally, he will join a bunch of other people to see who can end up in the same place they all started the fastest.
Emma W :: Epigenetics Editor & Technical Writer
Originally hailing from England, Emma crossed the channel to carry out her Master’s degree and PhD in Paris. Although initially focused on genetic linkage studies, she soon realised that the epigenome was much cooler and switched her attention to the epigenetics of stem cells. Alas, four years at the bench would prove that she was better off wielding a pen than a pipette, so she hung up her lab coat to take a job at a scientific editing company. Here, she helped French researchers to publish their findings in English. Emma first heard about Epigenie during her PhD and jumped at the opportunity to contribute following a call for writers in 2014. Now Epigenie provides the perfect outlet for her love of all things epigenetic.
Continuing with her tour de l’Europe, Emma now lives in Trondheim, Norway where she is working as a freelancer scientific editor, writer and translator and discovering the joys of cross country skiing.