Doctor Mark Burton

Dr Burton completed an Undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Southampton, followed by an MSc in Molecular Neurosciences at the University of Bristol. He returned to Southampton to study for his PhD investigating the effect of folic acid intake on the regulation of genes that modulate breast cancer development and how epigenetic regulation plays a role. This established an interest in the epigenetics of disease and how intervention at different periods of the life-course can modulate disease trajectories. Dr Burton has worked on a number of research projects within the EpiGen Research Group including investigating the links between methylation adiposity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in adolescence, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia. He has also participated in a number of large cohort studies investigating the cellular and molecular regulation of sarcopenia, testing novel pharmacological compounds in collaboration with a UK-based artificial intelligence industry partner (BenevolentAI). Furthermore, he has worked on three pioneering projects investigating the regulation of non-coding RNA’s in serum from the Hertfordshire sarcopenia cohort, and in sperm from the PREPARE cohort, characterising for the first time the small ncRNA populations. He recently ran a project investigating the single cell transcriptomes of nuclei from cultured primary myoblasts from older people with sarcopenia. Dr Burton hopes to continue with research which will enable the discovery of biomarkers that are predictive of disease risk, to enable molecular targeting through nutritional or pharmacological intervention in order to improve health trajectories.