Kevin Sinclair

Kevin Sinclair is a Professor of Developmental Biology at the University of Nottingham. His research interests primarily focus on metabolic programming during early development, where epigenetic outcomes are determined in embryonic cells, and long-term developmental consequences assessed in offspring. Working with sheep, his group was the first to discover that developmental anomalies following embryo culture were due to errors in genomic imprinting (Nature Genetics, 27: 153-154). Also the first to demonstrate that reductions in specific micronutrients in rodents and sheep lead to epigenetic modifications to DNA methylation and adult offspring with increased body fat and blood pressure, altered immune function and insulin resistance (showcased to the NICHD Advisory Council in Washington DC in January 2007; PNAS, 104: 19351-19356). More applied aspects of his research have focussed on improving in vitro systems for culturing cattle and sheep embryos and developing methods for preimplantation genetic diagnosis in these species.