Rate My Professor Jackie Ludgate

Jackie Ludgate is a Research Fellow in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Otago's Dunedin School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine. She holds a BSc (Hons) and specializes in providing laboratory support for a wide range of research projects within the Epigenetics Group. Her research centers on the genetic and epigenetic origins of childhood leukaemia, where she investigates candidate genes involved in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia using techniques including transgenic mice, yeast two-hybrid analysis, and methylation studies. Ludgate's work in the Morison Laboratory explores DNA methylation as a marker for blood cancers such as childhood leukaemia, myelodysplasia, and myeloma, as well as its roles in placental development, pre-eclampsia, and responses to drug treatments or environmental exposures, employing methods like genome-wide bisulphite sequencing and barcoded hairpin-bisulphite sequencing.

Ludgate has made significant contributions to publications in epigenetics and haematology. Key works include her first-author paper, 'A streamlined method for analysing genome-wide DNA methylation patterns from low amounts of FFPE DNA' (Clinical Epigenetics, 2017); 'Aberrant immunoglobulin kappa locus rearrangement in a patient with CARD11-related B cell lymphocytosis' (Journal of Clinical Immunology, 2021), co-authored with Professor Ian Morison and Rob Weeks, which resolved a 58-year medical mystery involving a rare leukaemia-like blood disorder; 'Silencing of Testin expression is a frequent event in spontaneous lymphomas from Trp53-mutant mice' (Scientific Reports, 2020); and 'The transposable element-derived transcript of LIN28B has a placental origin and is not specific to tumours' (Molecular Genetics & Genomics, 2023). Additional contributions appear in conference proceedings on placental epigenetics and familial immune thrombocytopenia associated with a MYB variant (Genetics Otago Symposia, 2020). Her efforts advance understanding of epigenetic mechanisms in cancer and developmental biology.