Barry Chioza

Barry Chioza is a Research Fellow who joined the Complex Disease Epigenomics in 2018 to work on the MRC project investigating regulatory genomic variation associated with schizophrenia in human neuronal nuclei and is currently working on a similar project investigating Alzheimer’s disease. Barry obtained an Honours degree in Biochemistry from Aberystwyth University before going to King’s College London to complete a M.Sc. in Neuroscience, followed by a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics. His project aimed to identify variants in candidate genes for idiopathic generalised epilepsy (IGE) that have been previously identified to be involved in Mendelian idiopathic epilepsies in humans or mouse models using case-control and within-family association studies. After completion of his Ph.D. Barry moved to University College London to continue his work on the idiopathic epilepsies, investigating the molecular genetics of childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) and juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) as well as looking at other childhood conditions, such as infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS). Barry then joined the group of Professor Andrew Crosby at St George’s University of London, where he and worked primarily on elucidation of the genetic and molecular basis of inherited conditions which occur in genetically isolated communities such as the Amish communities of Ohio and Indiana, UK, India, Oman and Pakistan. This work led to the first description of disease associated with aberrant omega-3 fatty acid transport in the human brain, the definition of kaptin as a molecule crucial for normal human neuromorphogenesis, and the description of a new family of inherited diseases due to disorders of ganglioside biosynthesis. When Professor Crosby’s group moved to Exeter in June 2013 Barry came with him continuing his work with the Amish population playing a central role in role in the identification of three new syndromic forms of pre-lingual hearing loss including (i) SLITRK6, which represents one of only a few known genetic causes of high myopia, which occurs in conjunction with the hearing loss, (ii) PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen), a molecule crucial for cell DNA replication and repair in which it was determined that hypomorphic mutation may result in a DNA repair disorder with progressive hearing loss being a common presenting feature and (iii) HYAL2, which was discovered to underlie a new syndrome of hearing loss and cleft lip.

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