Welcome to the website of Alex Bortvin’s group at the Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution for Science. Our lab is located at the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
We study how mobile elements impact germ cell development and differentiation. Of particular interest to us is retrotransposon LINE-1. We use genetic, molecular and cell biological approaches to understand better how LINE-1 influences germ cell development and how germ cells fight back to protect their genomes.