Rate My Professor Rebecca Oakey

Professor Rebecca Oakey is Professor of Epigenetics in the Department of Medical & Molecular Genetics within the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King’s College London. She also holds the position of Dean for Doctoral Studies in the King's Doctoral College and leads the Oakey Epigenetics Group. Oakey earned her BSc from UWE Bristol in 1986 and DPhil from the University of Oxford's Department of Biochemistry in 1989, with a thesis on the structure of alphoid satellite DNA on human Y chromosomes. She completed postdoctoral training at Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Fox Chase Cancer Centre, all in Pennsylvania, USA. Prior to her return to the UK, she served as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. At King’s, she advanced from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Professor.

Oakey's research centers on epigenetic mechanisms, with a focus on DNA methylation as a regulator of gene expression during developmental processes. Her multi-disciplinary group employs molecular biology at model loci and computational analyses of omics data to elucidate gene regulation rules. Applications extend to clinically relevant areas including foetal growth defects, neuroendocrine tumours such as pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas, endocardial cell development, heart valve formation, rare diseases, cancer epigenomics, and host epigenetics in infection. Specific interests encompass intragenic CpG islands, imprinted retrogenes, and molecular genetics of neuroendocrine tumours. Notable publications include 'Divergent DNA methylation dynamics in marsupial and eutherian embryos' (Nature, 2025), 'SOX2+ sustentacular cells are stem cells of the postnatal adrenal medulla' (Nature Communications, 2025), 'Phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas harbour tumour-initiating SOX2+ stem cells' (2026), and 'Regulation of alternative polyadenylation by genomic imprinting' (Genes & Development, 2008). Oakey has received the Ethel Brown Foerderer Fellowship (2001), Florence R.C. Murray Award (1996), and Rothschild Sabbatical Fellowship (2018). She serves as Trustee of the Genetics Society, Associate Member of the EpiGeneSys Network, Training Lead for the KHP Digital Health Hub, and Lead for the King's Innovation Scholars Program, securing grants for digital health training and functional genomics research.