Dr. Amy Webster
Lecturer
A.Webster@exeter.ac.uk
Medical School Building F.08C
Medical School Building, St Luke's Campus, Magdalen Road, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK
Overview
Dr Amy Webster is an epigenetics enthusiast and Lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School where her research focuses on understanding how epigenetic modifications are established and how such modifications influence disease development. She has a particular interest in exploring how early life exposures such as breastfeeding can impact on lifelong health.
Qualifications
- PhD Medicine (University of Manchester)
- BSc Genetics (University of Manchester)
Research group links
Research
Research interests
Amy’s PhD at the University of Manchester focused on exploring the role of the epigenome in development of rheumatoid arthritis which involved establishing epigenetic research in the Arthritis Research UK Centre for Genetics and Genomics. Following this, she spent five years as a post-doc at the UCL Cancer Institute in the Medical Genomics group lead by Stephan Beck, where she focused on identifying epigenetic biomarkers for use in precision medicine. During this time she lead the epigenetic analysis for the Personal Genome Project UK and chaired the UCL Personalised Medicine Early Career Network. Following this she completed a second postdoc in the University of Exeter Cancer Genomics group lead by Chrissie Thirlwell, where she investigated the impact of epigenetics and disrupted glycaemic environments on cancer development.
She is now establishing her own independent research group investigating the role of the epigenome in lifelong health.
Research projects
- Exploring the colorectal cancer epigenome using long-read sequencing
- Epi-ASCENT: the epigenetic landscape of screen-detected lung cancers
- Understanding epigenetic variation in multifocal ileal neuroendocrine tumours and mesenteric fibrosis
- EpiMatch: DNA methylation as a predictor of haematopoietic cell transplantation
Research networks
Member of the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society and the UK Pharmacogenetics and Stratified Medicine Network
Research grants
- 0 CRUK
Epi-ASCENT’: The epigenetic landscape of screen-detected lung cancers - 0 Wellcome Trust
Wellcome Trust Translational Research Exchange @ Exeter Award: ‘Effect of diabetes on Genomic variation in colorectal cancer’ - 0 Academy of Medical Sciences
Springboard Round 9: Exploring the epigenetic landscape of colorectal cancer using long read sequencing
Publications
Journal articles
Conferences
External Engagement and Impact
Awards
2022: Advance HE Aurora Leadership Program
2021: University of Exeter Above and Beyond Award for Collaboration
2020: Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy
2013: Best poster award, Wellcome Trust Epigenomics of Common Disease Conference (Cambridge)
Invited lectures
- Molecular Mechanisms of Disease course, Biotech Research and Innovation Centre (BRIC), University of Copenhagen (October 2018)
- Genetics summer course, University of Cambridge (July 2018)
Media Coverage
2018: GenomeWeb summary of rheumatoid arthritis twin study: https://www.genomeweb.com/epigenetics-research/identical-twins-without-rheumatoid-arthritis-have-differentially-variable-dna
2018: YouTube summary of PGP-UK app launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mmd2B8vQSU