Amy Tsurumi

Research Interests

aging; bacterial infections; drosophila melanogaster; epidemiology; epigenetics; genomic instability; heterochromatin; histone demethylases

Research Narrative

My research is elucidating epigenetic mechanisms of host susceptibility and response to infections using Drosophila (fruit fly), mice and tissue culture Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection models, and human cohort biomarker studies.

I hope to identify specific histone post-translational modification marks and genomic loci that are relevant and explore the possibility of alleviating the negative impact of pathogenic encounters by altering these epigenetic marks, as well as develop biomarkers for predicting susceptibility to infections and infections-related outcomes.

Companies

• Assistant Professor Massachusetts General Hospital (2022)
• Assistant Professor Harvard Medical School (2022)
• Course Instructor Harvard Extension School (2017)
• Researcher Shriners Hospitals for Children (2012)
• Instructor Massachusetts General Hospital (2019 — 2022)
• Instructor Harvard Medical School (2019 — 2022)
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow Massachusetts General Hospital (2012 — 2019)
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow Harvard Medical School (2012 — 2019)
• Laboratory Technician Claremont Colleges W.M. Keck Science Department (2005 — 2006)

Education

• Master of Science (M.S.) Harvard School of Public Health (2011 — 2012)
• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry (2006 — 2011)
• Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Scripps College (2001 — 2005)