Dr. J. Andrew Pospisilik is a leading expert in the study of how the epigenome regulates complex trait variation as well as disease susceptibility and heterogeneity. He earned his B.Sc. with honors and his Ph.D. in Physiology from University of British Columbia, where his work focused on type 1 and 2 diabetes. Later, as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Josef M. Penninger at IMBA Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Dr. Pospisilik performed the first genome-wide RNAi-screen for obesity in Drosophila, identifying some of the first specific developmental regulators of brown adipose tissue formation, and overturned dogma showing that compromised mitochondrial function actually buffers against diabetes. In 2010, he established his laboratory at Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany, where his team made groundbreaking advances, including development of novel sensitized models for understanding epigenetic stability and variation in metabolic disease; the first formal proof for the existence of polyphenism in mammals (including suggestions in humans) and the first mapping of a genetic architecture for mammalian phenotypic buffering. In 2018, Dr. Pospisilik joined Van Andel Institute as a director of its Center for Epigenetics and a founding member of its Metabolic and Nutritional Programming group. He is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including the 2016 Novo Nordisk Helmholtz Young Investigator Award, the 2015 GSK Award for Basic Medical Research, the 2013 EASD Rising Star Award and the 2011 RISE1 Award from the Epigenesys Network of Excellence. He also is a member of the World Economic Forum faculty and was recently awarded an NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award.

Welcome to this exciting seminar!

Josef Gullmets

If you would like to participate in the student lunch with Andrew at Kartano after his talk, please request your participation from Onur Deniz onur.deniz@helsinki.fi since space is limited.

Selected publications:

1. Panzeri I, Fagnocchi L, Apostle S, Tompkins M, Wolfrum E, Madaj Z, Hostetter G, Liu Y, Schaefer K, Yang CH, Bergsma A, Drougard A, Dror E, Chandler DP, Schramek D, Triche TJ Jr, Pospisilik JA. TRIM28-dependent developmental heterogeneity determines cancer susceptibility through distinct epigenetic states. Nat Cancer. 2025 Feb;6(2):385-403. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11864977.

2. Dror E, Fagnocchi L, Wegert V, Apostle S, Grimaldi B, Gruber T, Panzeri I, Heyne S, Höffler KD, Kreiner V, Ching R, Tsai[1]Hsiu Lu T, Semwal A, Johnson B, Senapati P, Lempradl A, Schones D, Imhof A, Shen H, Pospisilik JA. Epigenetic dosage identifies two major and functionally distinct β cell subtypes. Cell Metab. 2023 May 2;35(5):821-836.e7. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10160009.

3. Yang CH, Fagnocchi L, Apostle S, Wegert V, Casaní-Galdón S, Landgraf K, Panzeri I, Dror E, Heyne S, Wörpel T, Chandler DP, Lu D, Yang T, Gibbons E, Guerreiro R, Bras J, Thomasen M, Grunnet LG, Vaag AA, Gillberg L, Grundberg E, Conesa A, Körner A, Pospisilik JA. Independent phenotypic plasticity axes define distinct obesity sub-types. Nat Metab. 2022 Sep;4(9):1150-1165. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9499872.

4. Dalgaard K, Landgraf K, Heyne S, Lempradl A, Longinotto J, Gossens K, Ruf M, Orthofer M, Strogantsev R, Selvaraj M, Lu TT, Casas E, Teperino R, Surani MA, Zvetkova I, Rimmington D, Tung YC, Lam B, Larder R, Yeo GS, O’Rahilly S, Vavouri T, Whitelaw E, Penninger JM, Jenuwein T, Cheung CL, Ferguson-Smith AC, Coll AP, Körner A, Pospisilik JA. Trim28 Haploinsufficiency Triggers Bi-stable Epigenetic Obesity. Cell. 2016 Jan 28;164(3):353-64. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4735019.

5. Teperino R, Amann S, Bayer M, McGee SL, Loipetzberger A, Connor T, Jaeger C, Kammerer B, Winter L, Wiche G,NIH Biographical Sketch v.2025-1 Dalgaard K, Selvaraj M, Gaster M, Lee-Young RS, Febbraio MA, Knauf C, Cani PD, Aberger F, Penninger JM, Pospisilik JA, Esterbauer H. Hedgehog partial agonism drives Warburg-like metabolism in muscle and brown fat. Cell. 2012 Oct 12;151(2):414-26. PubMed PMID: 23063129.

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University of Helsinki students, please note: If you wish to obtain credits from this seminar series, please use your full name in Zoom or sign the participant list in the lecture hall.

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