KATHRIN PLATH, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry

Kathrin Plath joined UCLA’s Biological Chemistry Department as Assistant Professor in March 2006. Born in Germany, Kathrin Plath earned her doctorate degree in cell biology from Harvard Medical School and the Humboldt University Berlin, Germany, and did her post-doctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, and the Whitehead Institute at MIT. Her lab is particularly interested in understanding how developmental cues induce changes in chromatin structure, and how these changes regulate cell fate decisions and gene expression. For example, one specific question her lab studies is how one of the two X chromosomes in female mammalian cells is inactivated when embryonic stem cells are induced to differentiate. Dr. Plath’s lab was among the first to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from mouse and human adult cells. Her efforts in the reprogramming field are aimed at elucidating the mechanisms that bring adult cells back to an embryonic state and determine how the chromatin state is reset.

Read more about Kathrin Plath:

• Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
• David Geffen School of Medicine Biography