Hannah-Ruth Engelbrecht
I am a South African student who made the leap across the hemispheres to begin my PhD at UBC. I completed my undergraduate training in Human Physiology and Genetics, and then decided to pursue an MSc(Med) in Human Genetics, specialising in bipolar disorder, all at the University of Cape Town. My current work focuses on perturbations to human health across the lifespan, and the impact of such disturbances on DNA methylation. One goal is to determine whether biomarkers of healthy aging and longevity can be identified at the DNA methylation level, while another project investigates the role of HIV exposure in utero on infant DNA methylation.