Overview
Richards is a professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute, an adjunct professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and a faculty member in the Graduate Fields of Genetics & Development, Genomics and Plant Biology.
Research Focus
Research in the Richards lab is broadly focused on epigenetics, the study of inherited information superimposed on the genetic sequence. Most of our efforts to date have concentrated on cytosine methylation, which is one of the most fundamental types of epigenetic information in eukaryotic cells. We are interested in both the regulation of cytosine methylation and the phenotypic consequences of variation in cytosine methylation patterns. Our work also extends to higher-order epigenetic information encoded in alternative chromatin packaging and the three-dimensional organization of the genetic material. Our studies take advantage of the genetic and genomic resources available in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana.
