Amy Walker

Amy Walker is an Associate Professor at UMass Chan Medical School in the Program in Molecular Medicine. Her research focuses on the interplay between transcriptional regulation, lipid metabolism, and 1-carbon cycle (1CC) in Caenorhabditis elegans, human cell lines, and mouse models. She investigates how SREBP (sterol regulatory element-binding protein) transcription factors coordinate lipid synthesis with methylation processes via SAMe (s-adenosylmethionine), linking dietary/environmental factors to epigenetic modification, stress responses, and age-related pathologies.

Her work explores:

• Regulation of histone/DNA methylation by SAMe levels
• Mechanisms of differential SREBP-1/SREBP-2 regulation under phosphatidylcholine depletion
• Genetic/dietary models of 1CC dysfunction in C. elegans
• Translational relevance to mammalian hepatic steatosis and metabolic syndrome

Recent publications highlight her team’s discoveries on SAM synthase specialization (2025), Golgi-ARF-1 immune activation pathways (2023), and WormCat 2.0 as a genomics tool (2022). The lab employs cross-species genetic screens, ChIP-Seq analysis, and metabolomic profiling to uncover regulatory nodes between lipid homeostasis and methylation-dependent processes.