Brian Thompson

Brian Thompson is a second-year doctoral student in Environmental Health Sciences at Yale University where he has gained experience from his teaching fellowship roles in both the Introductory Biostatistics and Introductory Toxicology courses. His research interests include understanding how cells of the central nervous system respond to both endogenous and exogenous stressors. His interest in climate change grew from a belief that climate change is the most consequential problem facing the world in the 21st century. Prior to his doctoral studies, Brian obtained a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Ocular development is composed of a carefully orchestrated set of events that are easily perturbed, which results in a syndrome of diseases termed MAC (microphthalmia, anophthalmia and coloboma). For decades, previous research has largely been focused on elucidating the role of transcription factors in directing eye development. However, it is increasingly realized that oxidative stress also plays an important role in the eye development process. Despite these realizations, much remains to be known about the mechanisms by which oxidative stress influences eye development. I aim to address this knowledge gap through my investigation of an oxidative-stress induced microphthalmia mouse model with several -omics (i.e., RNA-seq, proteomics, ChIP-seq) and advanced experimental (i.e., immunoprecipitations, CUT&RUN) techniques. Through my research, I am elucidating the role of oxidative stress in shaping the epigenome during the eye development process.