Dr. Michael S. Kobor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at UBC, and a Scientist at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, a gene research centre under UBC’s Faculty of Medicine and located at the Child and Family Research Institute (CFRI). 

Dr. Kobor completed his PhD in Medical Genetics under Dr. Jack Greenblatt at the University of Toronto before undertaking postdoctoral training as a Human Frontier Science Program Fellow with Dr. Jasper Rine at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Research in Dr. Kobor’s laboratory is focused on the epigenetic regulation of gene expression and genome function. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the mechanistic nature of these processes and their modulation by environmental exposures. Dr. Kobor’s research team utilizes an interdisciplinary approach, with investigations spanning the entire spectrum from model organisms to human populations.  Through a variety of research approaches, ongoing work in Dr. Kobor’s laboratory touches on some of the fundamental questions in chromatin biology.  These queries include how distinct chromosomal neighbourhoods are established, how they function and interact with enzymes involved in DNA metabolism, what the functional differences between histone variants and canonical histones are, and how chromatin-remodeling complexes are regulated.  Most recently, working with his research team and interdisciplinary collaborators, Dr. Kobor has begun investigating epigenetic variation in humans, with a particular focus on the effects of social environment on lifelong health and aging.  These studies aim to decipher the mechanisms by which environmental exposures and life experiences can “get under the skin” to regulate the activity of genes and contribute to human physiology and behaviour during the life course of an individual. 

Dr. Kobor is a Scholar in the Experience-based Brain & Biological Development Program from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), a Mowafaghian Junior Scholar, and an Investigator with NeuroDevNet NCE and AllerGen NCE Inc.  He also serves on the Management Committee of the BC Clinical Genomics Network and is the co-Director of the Genetics and Epigenetics Centre within the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging (CLSA), a national cohort for which he also chairs the Training and Research Capacity Committee. 

Publications

• Different measures of genome-wide DNA methylation exhibit unique properties in placental and somatic tissues

  • 2012 Epigenetics
  • Price M. E. , Cotton A. M. , Peñaherrera M. S. , McFadden D. E. , Kobor M. S. , Robinson W. P.

• Population-Specificity of Human DNA Methylation

  • 2012 Genome Biol
  • Fraser H. B. , Lam L. , Neumann S. , Kobor M. S.

• Epigenetic mechanisms mediating vulnerability and resilience to psychiatric disorders

  • 2011 Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
  • Dudley K. J. , Li X. , Kobor M. S. , Kippin T. E. , Bredy T. W.

• Focus on: Epigenetics and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

  • 2011 Alcohol Research & Health
  • Kobor M. S. , Weinberg J.

• Epigenetic vestiges of early developmental adversity: Childhood stress exposure and DNA methylation in adolescence

  • 2011 Child Development
  • Essex M. J. , Boyce T. , Hertzman C. , Lam L. , Armstrong J. M. , Neumann S. , Kobor M. S.

• Extensive epigenetic reprogramming in human somatic tissues between fetus and adult

  • 2011 Epigenetics & Chromatin
  • Yuen R. , Neumann S. , Fok A. K. , Peñaherrera M. S. , McFadden D. E. , Robinson W. P. , Kobor M. S.

• The brain-specific microRNA miR-128b regulates the formation of fear-extinction memory

  • 2011 Nature Neuroscience
  • Quan L. , Wei W. , Coelho C. M. , Xiang L. , Baker-Andresen D. , Dudley K. J. , Ratnu V. S. , Boskovic Z. , Kobor M. S. , Sun Y. E. , Bredy T. W.

• Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Gene-Environment Interactions, Predictive Biomarkers, and the Relationship Between Structural Alterations in the Brain and Functional Outcomes

  • 2011 Semin Pediatr Neurol
  • Reynolds J. N. , Weinberg J. , Clarren S. , Beaulieu C. , Rasmussen C. , Kobor M. S. , Dube M. P. , Goldowitz D.

• Decreased fibronectin production significantly contributes to dysregulated repair of asthmatic epithelium

  • 2010 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
  • Kicic A. , Hallstrand T. S. , Sutanto E. N. , Stevens P. T. , Kobor M. S. , Taplin C.

• How the epigenome contributes to the development of psychiatric disorders

  • 2010 Developmental Psychobiology
  • Bredy T. W. , Sun Y. E. , Kobor M. S.

• Maternal Warmth Buffers the Effects of Low Early-Life Socioeconomic Status on Pro-Inflammatory Signaling in Adulthood

  • 2010 Mol Psychiatry
  • Chen E. , Miller G. E. , Kobor M. S. , Cole S. W.

• Low early-life social class leaves a biological residue manifested by decreased glucocorticoid and increased proinflammatory signaling

  • 2009 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
  • Miller G. E. , Chen E. , Fok A. K. , Walker H. , Lim A. , Nicholls E. F. , Cole S. W. , Kobor M. S.