Georgia Kafer

Georgia completed her PhD in Physiology at the University of Queensland in 2010. Her PhD work was a collaboration between University of Queensland (UQ), and CSIRO Livestock Industries which centered on understanding epigenetic signature differences in preimplantation embryos generated through natural and artificial means. In 2010 Georgia was appointed as an Associate Lecturer in Physiology and Reproductive Biology at UQ and began her postdoctoral training with Dr. David Simmons investigating mouse placental development. In 2012 Georgia accepted a Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellowship and relocated to the Institute for Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) in Kyoto University, Japan. At iCeMS Georgia studied epigenetics in human embryonic stem cells under the mentorship of A/Prof. Peter Carlton and Prof. Norio Nakasuji. In 2014, at the conclusion of her JSPS fellowship, Georgia began working on a Japanese Science and Technology CREST program investigating the role of DNA methylation in DNA damage response pathways. In 2017 Georgia returned to Australia and joined the Genome Integrity Unit. Her current research involves pursuing novel research avenues relating to DNA damage and replication stress in pluripotent cells.