Chhabi Govind

Chhabi Govind is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Oakland University, where they maintain an active research laboratory investigating the molecular mechanisms of chromatin structure regulation during transcription. Their work primarily utilizes the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast) to study how histone modifications and chromatin remodeling complexes regulate gene expression.

Dr. Govind's research focuses on understanding how chromatin structure dynamically changes during transcription, with particular emphasis on histone acetylation and the role of chromatin remodeling complexes like RSC. Their laboratory investigates how hyperacetylated histones are evicted from coding sequences during RNA polymerase elongation and whether this process is mediated by RSC, an essential chromatin remodeling complex known to bind acetylated histones.

Over the past decade, Dr. Govind's research has evolved from studying basic mechanisms of histone modification to conducting genome-wide analyses of nucleosome positioning and factor occupancy. Recent work has expanded into examining how multiple chromatin remodeling complexes cooperate during transcription and how these processes affect nucleosome positioning and polyadenylation sites.

• National Institutes of Health funding for research on "Regulation of Chromatin Structure During Transcription"
• Active mentorship of graduate and undergraduate researchers
• Collaborations with researchers at multiple institutions including Harvard Medical School

Dr. Govind teaches undergraduate and graduate courses including BIO 3232 Biochemistry I, BIO 3233 Biochemistry Lab, and BIO 5256 Advanced Topics in Cellular Biochemistry and Metabolism. Their laboratory, located in room 334 MSC, employs a combination of yeast genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology techniques to investigate fundamental questions in gene regulation.