Yamini Dalal, Ph.D. Investigator and Group Leader Curriculum Vitae (.pdf)

Dr. Yamini Dalal was born and raised in Bombay, India. She became interested in chromosome structure and epigenetic gene regulation during her Baccalaureate years at St. Xavier's College, where she graduated with a double major in Biochemistry and Life Sciences in 1995. She moved to the United States for her post-graduate work, focusing on understanding how DNA sequence motifs can shape the chromatin structure. In Arnold Stein's laboratory at Purdue University, she studied nucleosome positioning in vivo in mouse. The nucleosome positioning could be predicted by in silico, using computational modeling and recapitulated in vitro, using just purified histones and DNA. She also studied how linker histone H1 could influence nucleosome positioning and chromatin folding in vitro and in vivo. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University in 2003.

Histone variants were the next natural step in teasing out how intrinsic variability in the chromatin fiber can encode a diversity of biological functions. To study this aspect of chromatin structure, Yamini moved to Seattle to work with Dr. Steven Henikoff at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center from 2003-2007. Using a range of biochemical analyses ranging from nuclease assays to electron and atomic force microscopy, she and colleagues uncovered that the centromere-specific histone variant makes a strikingly unusual nucleosome, features of which are reminiscent of the nucleosomes found in the archaebacteria. This work will dominate future research aims of the laboratory.

Yamini’s outside interests range from the literary (all kinds of biology, magical realism, historical and science fiction), to the physical (hiking, biking, skiing, and getting rained on while gardening). She is also an avid explorer of new foods and music.