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Contact Details

Email
julia.horsfield@otago.ac.nz
Position
Professor, Head of Faculty and Dean, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences
Qualifications
BSc(Hons) PhD DipAppSci
Research summary
Developmental biology, genetics and epigenetics

Research

Julia Horsfield is the Principal Investigator of the Chromosome Structure and Development Group, and the Director of the Otago Zebrafish Facility.

Research Detail
  • Understanding the roles of sister chromatid cohesin proteins in animal development.
  • Exploring a link between cohesin subunit RAD21 and cancer.
  • Investigating oxidative stress and ageing using the zebrafish model.

We are interested in how proteins necessary for normal chromosome architecture during the cell cycle can also contribute to gene expression, animal development and cancer. The main focus of our research is exploring alternative roles for proteins needed for sister chromatid cohesion during mitosis. To do most of our research, we are using the genetically amenable vertebrate animal model, the zebrafish.

Publications

Calhoun, C., Darroch, H., Hussain, R., Morice, M., Lalonde, R., Mosimann, C., Horsfield, J., & Leask, M. (2026, February). Functional characterisation of Polynesian-enriched non-coding variants utilizing a novel method of zebrafish transgenesis. Verbal presentation at the Genetics Otago (GO) Annual Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Nah, G. S. S., Matsuo, J., Bahirvani, A. G., Kimura, S., Chin, D. W. L., Ng, K. P., … Marsman, J., Horsfield, J., … Osato, M. (2025). An upstream RUNX3 enhancer, eR3 (-18m/-28h), regulates the development of gut-associated anti-tumorigenic CD8+CD103+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes in mouse and human. Genes to Cells, 30(6), e70052. doi: 10.1111/gtc.70052 Journal - Research Article

Morabito, R. M., Tatarakis, D., Swick, R., Stettnisch, S., Nayak, P. K., Schilling, T. F., Horsfield, J. A., & Martin, B. L. (2025). The ratio of Wnt signaling activity to Sox2 transcription factor levels predicts neuromesodermal fate potential. Development. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1242/dev.204661 Journal - Research Article

Greenaway, C., Gray, D., Lynch, D., Ketharnathan, S., Meier, M., & Horsfield, J. (2025). Function of cohesion in brain development. In A. Banstola (Ed.), Proceedings of the 41st International Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research (AWCBR). 11.14, (pp. 61). Retrieved from https://www.awcbr.org Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Ray Das, S., Sullivan, R., Ruegg, M. S. G., Horsfield, J., Doran, J., Poke, G., … Bicknell, L. S. (2025). Recurrent de novo variants in the spliceosomal factor CRNKL1 are associated with severe microcephaly and pontocerebellar hypoplasia with seizures. American Journal of Human Genetics, 112(7), 1722-1732. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2025.05.013 Journal - Research Article

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