Dr Kate Giles is a postdoctoral researcher at the Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI), an Adjunct Researcher at the Tasmanian School of Medical, University of Tasmania and a Research Affiliate with the Faculty of Health and Medicine, at The University of Sydney.

Kate completed her undergraduate studies in molecular biology at Western Sydney University, where she was awarded Class I Honours, the Dean’s Medal for Outstanding Scholarship and University Medal for Outstanding Scholarship. Kate then obtained her PhD (2019) from the Epigenetics Research Laboratory at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, under the supervision of A/Prof Phillippa Taberlay, Prof Susan Clark, and Dr Joanna Achinger-Kawecka.

Kate’s PhD research investigated ATP-dependent chromatin remodeller complexes and she made a series of meaningful discoveries linking these complexes to regulation of the epigenome and the result this had on gene expression and cell proliferation. For her work Kate was awarded the Dean’s Award for Outstanding PhD Theses.

In 2019, Kate relocated to CMRI, where she joined the Genome Integrity Unit under the guidance of A/Prof Tony Cesare (CMRI) and A/Prof Phillippa Taberlay (UTAS). Here she continued working on understanding the interplay between ATP-dependent chromatin remodellers and the epigenome, but in in the context of genome stability.

Kate’s research uses high-throughput sequencing, complimented with super resolution microscopy to, 1) understand the function of chromatin on replication initiation, 2) determine the implications of aberrant chromatin in the replication stress response, and 3) determine the downstream molecular effects of chromatin remodelling on genome stability.