Adrienne Sullivan

Dr Adrienne Sullivan

Head, Development and Epigenetics

School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science

College of Health

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Dr Adrienne Sullivan is head of the Development and Epigenetics Lab, which seeks to understand the molecular basis for controlling activity of gene enhancers and how this regulation affects the identity, behaviour, and potency of a cell. The selective activation and decommissioning of enhancers through epigenetic remodelling is critical for differentiation of multipotent progenitor cells during development. Conversely, misregulation of enhancers and enhancer remodelling plays a role in carcinogenesis and can underly non-genetic drug resistance in cancer cells. Understanding the molecular biology of these processes and how they produce cellular outcomes is therefore important to understand both development and disease.

Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
2017 Fellowship Rutherford-Crick Fellowship, UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Francis Crick Institute United Kingdom -

Date Institution name Country Title
2009 - 2016 University of Adelaide Australia PhD

Date Title Institution Country
2017 - 2023 Postdoctoral Researcher Francis Crick Institute United Kingdom
2017 - 2017 Postdoctoral Training Fellow MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences United Kingdom
2016 - 2016 Postdoctoral Research Associate University of Adelaide Australia

Year Citation
2025 Allen, T. P., Roennfeldt, A. E., Reckdharajkumar, M., Sullivan, A. E., Liu, M., Quinn, R. J., . . . Bersten, D. C. (2025). dFLASH; dual FLuorescent transcription factor activity sensor for histone integrated live-cell reporting and high-content screening. Nature Communications, 16(1), 3298-1-3298-18.
DOI
2025 Pitino, E., Pascual-Reguant, A., Segato-Dezem, F., Wise, K., Salvador-Martinez, I., Crowell, H. L., . . . Martelotto, L. G. (2025). STAMP: Single-cell transcriptomics analysis and multimodal profiling through imaging.. Cell, 188(18), 5100-5117.e26.
DOI Scopus4 WoS4 Europe PMC6
2023 Sullivan, A. E. (2023). Epigenetic Control of Cell Potency and Fate Determination during Mammalian Gastrulation. Genes, 14(6), 16 pages.
DOI Scopus5 WoS4 Europe PMC1
2023 Sullivan, A. E., & Santos, S. D. (2023). The ever-growing world of gastruloids: autogenous models of mammalian embryogenesis. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, 82, 11 pages.
DOI Scopus7 WoS6 Europe PMC6
2022 Bersten, D. C., Sullivan, A. E., McDougal, D., Breen, J., Fitzsimmons, R. L., Muscat, G. E. O., . . . Whitelaw, M. L. (2022). Core and Flanking bHLH-PAS:DNA interactions mediate specificity and drive obesity.
DOI Europe PMC1
2021 Hellewell, J., Russell, T. W., Matthews, R., Severn, A., Adam, S., Enfield, L., . . . Gigli, C. C. (2021). Estimating the effectiveness of routine asymptomatic PCR testing at different frequencies for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infections. BMC Medicine, 19(1), 10 pages.
DOI Scopus84 Europe PMC106
2021 Balestrini, S., Koepp, M. J., Gandhi, S., Rickman, H. M., Shin, G. Y., Houlihan, C. F., . . . Goldstone, R. (2021). Clinical outcomes of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities for people with epilepsy. Epilepsy and Behavior, 115, 1-10.
DOI Scopus11 Europe PMC11
2021 Hao, N., Sullivan, A. E., Shearwin, K. E., & Dodd, I. B. (2021). The loopometer: a quantitative in vivo assay for DNA-looping proteins. Nucleic Acids Research, 49(7), 1-16.
DOI Scopus6 WoS5 Europe PMC5
2020 Houlihan, C. F., Vora, N., Byrne, T., Lewer, D., Kelly, G., Heaney, J., . . . Gutierrez, M. G. (2020). Pandemic peak SARS-CoV-2 infection and seroconversion rates in London frontline health-care workers. The Lancet, 396(10246), e6-e7.
DOI Scopus156 WoS142 Europe PMC158
2020 Aitken, J., Ambrose, K., Barrell, S., Beale, R., Bineva-Todd, G., Biswas, D., . . . Bowker, F. (2020). Author Correction: Scalable and robust SARS-CoV-2 testing in an academic center (Nature Biotechnology, (2020), 38, 8, (927-931), 10.1038/s41587-020-0588-y). Nature Biotechnology, 38(8), 1000.
DOI Europe PMC1
2020 Aitken, J., Ambrose, K., Barrell, S., Beale, R., Bineva-Todd, G., Biswas, D., . . . Broncel, M. (2020). Scalable and robust SARS-CoV-2 testing in an academic center. Nature Biotechnology, 38(8), 927-931.
DOI Scopus26 WoS23 Europe PMC30
2020 Gunne-Braden, A., Sullivan, A., Gharibi, B., Sheriff, R. S. M., Maity, A., Wang, Y. F., . . . Santos, S. D. M. (2020). GATA3 Mediates a Fast, Irreversible Commitment to BMP4-Driven Differentiation in Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Cell Stem Cell, 26(5), 693-706.e9.
DOI Scopus53 WoS52 Europe PMC54
2020 Sullivan, A. E., & Santos, S. D. M. (2020). An Optimized Protocol for ChIP-Seq from Human Embryonic Stem Cell Cultures. STAR Protocols, 1(2), 20 pages.
DOI Scopus20 WoS18 Europe PMC24
2020 Blackburn, P. R., Sullivan, A. E., Gerassimou, A. G., Kleinendorst, L., Bersten, D. C., Cooiman, M., . . . Atwal, P. S. (2020). Functional Analysis of the SIM1 Variant p.G715V in 2 Patients With Obesity.. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 105(1), 355-361.
DOI Scopus14 WoS11 Europe PMC9
2017 Moir, L., Bochukova, E. G., Dumbell, R., Banks, G., Bains, R. S., Nolan, P. M., . . . Cox, R. D. (2017). Disruption of the homeodomain transcription factor orthopedia homeobox (Otp) is associated with obesity and anxiety. Molecular Metabolism, 6(11), 1419-1428.
DOI Scopus18 WoS14 Europe PMC14
2016 Sullivan, A., Peet, D., & Whitelaw, M. (2016). MAGED1 is a novel regulator of a select subset of bHLH PAS transcription factors. FEBS Journal, 283(18), 3488-3502.
DOI Scopus10 WoS10 Europe PMC10
2015 Bersten, D., Sullivan, A., Li, D., Bhakti, V., Bent, S., & Whitelaw, M. (2015). Inducible and reversible lentiviral and recombination mediated cassette exchange (RMCE) systems for controlling gene expression. PLoS One, 10(3), e0116373-1-e0116373-20.
DOI Scopus6 WoS6 Europe PMC5
2014 Sullivan, A., Raimondo, A., Schwab, T., Bruning, J., Froguel, P., Farooqi, I., . . . Whitelaw, M. (2014). Characterization of human variants in obesity-related SIM1 protein identifies a hot-spot for dimerization with the partner protein ARNT2. Biochemical Journal, 461(3), 403-412.
DOI Scopus9 WoS8 Europe PMC10
2013 Bersten, D., Sullivan, A., Peet, D., & Whitelaw, M. (2013). BHLH-PAS proteins in cancer. Nature Reviews. Cancer, 13(12), 827-841.
DOI Scopus219 WoS207 Europe PMC205
2013 Ramachandrappa, S., Raimondo, A., Cali, A., Keogh, J., Henning, E., Saeed, S., . . . Farooqi, I. (2013). Rare variants in single-minded 1 (SIM1) are associated with severe obesity. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 123(7), 3042-3050.
DOI Scopus140 WoS115 Europe PMC112
2013 Ramachandrappa, S., Raimondo, A., Cali, A. M. G., Keogh, J. M., Henning, E., Saeed, S., . . . Farooqi, I. S. (2013). Erratum: Rare variants in single-minded 1 (SIM1) are associated with severe obesity (Journal of Clinical Investigation (2013) 123:7 (3042-3050) DOI: 10.1172/JCI68016). Journal of Clinical Investigation, 123(8), 3635.
DOI Scopus1

Year Citation
2024 Pitino, E., Pascual-Reguant, A., Segato-Dezem, F., Wise, K., Salvador-Martinez, I., Crowell, H. L., . . . Martelotto, L. (2024). STAMP: Single-Cell Transcriptomics Analysis and Multimodal Profiling through Imaging.
DOI

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2025 Co-Supervisor Exploring the molecular interplay of highly related tumour suppressor proteins that bind identical DNA motifs Master of Philosophy (Medical Science) Master Full Time Miss Katarina Anastasia Amerl
2025 Co-Supervisor Investigating epigenetically regulated CAF conversion to the pro-malignant state in early-stage oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Di Jiang
2025 Co-Supervisor Exploring the molecular interplay of highly related tumour suppressor proteins that bind identical DNA motifs - Master Full Time Miss Katarina Anastasia Amerl
2025 Co-Supervisor Investigating epigenetically regulated CAF conversion to the pro-malignant state in early-stage oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Di Jiang

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