Bambarendage Pinithi Upekka Perera, PhD
Biography
Pini Perera is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research as a trained epigeneticist focuses on understanding the impact of environmental exposures on the epigenome and how these early developmental effects influence long-term health. Using mouse models, her work delves into the interplay between maternal-fetal crosstalk during pregnancy, with an emphasis on fetal sex-specific epigenetic regulation. Her goals include identifying potential epigenetic biomarkers linked to disease risk and exploring intervention strategies such as dietary changes and epigenetic regulatory mechanisms. By integrating molecular biology and toxicology, she aims to bridge critical knowledge gaps in the field of environmental health sciences. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, she completed her postdoctoral training, and later served as a research faculty member, at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Research Interests
- Environmental Epigenetics
- Genomic Imprinting
- Developmental Toxicology
- Non-coding RNA (piRNA, miRNA, lncRNA, and more)
- Mouse Genetics/Epigenetics
Education
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PhD – Biological Sciences
Louisiana State University, 2016 -
BS – Biological Sciences
University of New Orleans, 2011