Monique Rijnkels Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Baylor College of Medicine
rijnkel@bcm.tmc.edu
Ph.D. - Leiden University , Leiden , The Netherlands
Postdoctoral - Baylor College of medicine, Houston
Functional genomics of the casein gene cluster region
Understanding the genetic and nutritional mechanisms that regulate milk synthesis and composition is important to the overall well being of the breastfeeding newborn and anyone whose diet has dairy based components. Caseins constitute the major nutritional proteins in milk and supply basic amino acids, calcium, phosphates and bioactive peptides (e.g. anti-microbial and opioid).
The primary goalof the research in my lab is to understand the regulation of the casein genes and the genomic domain in which these genes reside.
We use genomic approaches to study the transcriptional regulation of this region. This combines three lines of research: The study of the chromatin structure and remodeling in the casein gene cluster region, using e.g. Chromatin Immuno Precipitation (ChIP) assays; Computational approaches to identify evolutionary conserved regions with potential regulatory function and the transacting factors that might bind them; The functional analysis of potential regulatory regions in transgenic mice.
As the casein-cluster region harbors a number of non-casein genes that potentially share functional properties as well as spatial expression patterns and evolutionary ancestry, we also study these genes in more detail.
Representative Publications
Hillier LW, ...Rijnkels M, et al. Sequence and comparative analysis of the chicken genome provide unique perspectives on vertebrate evolution. Nature. 432(7018):695-716, 2004. Erratum in: Nature. 433(7027):777, 2005.
Rijnkels M, Elnitski L, Miller W, Rosen JM. Multispecies comparative analysis of a mammalian-specific genomic domain encoding secretory proteins. Genomics. 82(4):417-432, 2003.
Rijnkels, M, Elnitski, L., Miller, W. and Rosen J.M. (2003) Multi-species comparative analysis of a mammalian specific genomic domain encoding secreted proteins. Genomics, 82 , 417-432.
Rijnkels M (2002) Multi-species comparison of the casein gene loci and evolution of the casein gene family. J. Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia 7 (3): 327-345.
Rijnkels, M., Kooiman, P. M., Platenburg, G. J., van Dixhoorn, M., Nuijens, J. H., de Boer, H. A. andPieper, F. R. (1998). High level mammary gland specific expression of bovine alpha s1-casein in transgenic mice. Transgenic Res. 7 :5-14
Rijnkels, M. and Pieper, F. R. (1998). Casein gene-based mammary-gland specific transgene expression. In "Mammary gland transgenesis". Therapeutic protein production." (F. O. Castro and J. Janne, eds.), pp. 41-64, Springer-Verlag , Berlin .
Rijnkels, M., Wheeler, D., de Boer, H. A. and Pieper, F. R. (1997). Structure and expression of the mouse casein gene locus. Mamm. Genome 8 : 9-15. (BCM)
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