Regular biography
Mary Gehring is a Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, affiliated with the Department of Biology. She is a Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering and a Core Member of the Whitehead Institute, holding the David Baltimore Chair in Biomedical Research. Additionally, she serves as Graduate Officer and is an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her research focuses on epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation in plants, particularly examining the interplay among repetitive sequences, DNA methylation, and chromatin structure in processes such as epigenomic reprogramming during reproduction in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Scholar-generated biography
Mary Gehring is a researcher focused on plant epigenetics, with a particular emphasis on DNA demethylation, epigenomic reprogramming, and the role of transposable elements in genomic regulation. Her work explores how DNA methylation patterns are dynamically regulated during plant development, especially in the context of genomic imprinting and seed viability. She has investigated the interplay between methylation and transcription, as well as the mechanisms by which DNA repair processes contribute to demethylation. Her research also examines the impact of transposable elements on gene expression and epigenetic inheritance across plant species.