Michael-Christopher Keogh’s passion for epigenetics and chromatin biology helps scientists tackle complex research questions and overcome the challenges of health science advancement. A former academic scientist himself, Keogh is now the chief scientific officer at EpiCypher, a biotechnology company that supports transformative clinical breakthroughs across the complete cycle of innovation and commercialization—from academics engaged in fundamental explorative work to companies delivering cutting-edge health innovations.
What has your journey as a scientist been like?
At the beginning, I was interested in transcription and gene expression. Everybody in the field at the time was largely working with naked DNA, a bit of genetics, and a lot of bucket biochemistry. We would all ignore the fact that transcription takes place not on a naked DNA template, but inside cells. This process is chromatinized—bundled with histones into nucleosomes. When the first transcriptional activator was definitively identified as a histone modifier, I immediately started working ...
