Rate My Professor Jisha Antony

Dr Jisha Antony serves as Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her research centers on chromatin organisation in cancer, with a particular emphasis on leukaemia-associated mutations in chromatin organisers such as cohesin. These mutations impact chromatin folding, contribute to translocations like RUNX1-RUNX1T1, and lead to enhancer dysfunction, which manifests as the major effect by causing gene expression dysregulation during cellular responses to differentiation or external signalling cues. Antony investigates therapeutic interventions to combat this enhancer dysfunction, including the use of enhancer blocking drugs and precise targeting of individual enhancers via CRISPR-Cas9 technology. She conducts genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screens in cohesin mutant leukaemia cells to pinpoint synthetic lethal targets suitable for therapeutic development. Additionally, her work examines the effects of cohesin mutations on signalling pathways by employing induced pluripotent stem cells that differentiate into haematopoietic cells, thereby assessing changes in chromatin organisation and gene expression. This research is supported by grants from the Cancer Society of New Zealand and the Health Research Council.

Antony has made significant contributions to the field through numerous peer-reviewed publications. Notable works include 'Cohesin rad21 mutation dysregulates erythropoiesis and granulopoiesis output within the whole kidney marrow of adult zebrafish' (2025, American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology), 'Cohesin composition and dosage independently affect early development in zebrafish' (2024, Development), 'Targeted DNA methylation editing using an all-in-one system establishes paradoxical activation of EBF3' (2024, Cancers), 'Cohesin Mutations in Cancer: Emerging Therapeutic Targets' (2021), 'BET inhibition prevents aberrant RUNX1 and ERG transcription in STAG2 mutant leukaemia cells' (2020, Journal of Molecular Cell Biology), 'HDAC8 Inhibition Blocks SMC3 Deacetylation and Delays Cell Cycle in Mammalian Cells' (2016, Journal of Biological Chemistry), and 'Intergenic GWAS SNPs are key components of the spatial and regulatory network for human growth' (2016). Her studies frequently collaborate with researchers such as Julia A. Horsfield, Gregory Gimenez, and Antony Braithwaite, advancing knowledge on cohesin-related mechanisms in haematopoiesis and cancer progression. She has presented findings at conferences like the Queenstown Research Week Cancer Meeting.