Blaine Bartholomew, Ph.D.
Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, Division of Discovery Science
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Professor, Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 1988 | University of California, Davis, Davis, California, US, Chemistry, Ph.D |
Postgraduate Training
| 1988-1991 | Postdoctoral, Gene Regulation, University of California, San Diego |
Experience & Service
Administrative Appointments/Responsibilities
Reviewer, NIH Study Section ZRG1 MBBC-G Collaborative Program Grant for Multidisciplinary Teams, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, 2026 - Present
Reviewer, NIH/NICHD Site Visit, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, 2025
Reviewer, NIH/NIEHS - Epigenetics and Stem Cell Biology Laboratory Site Visit, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, 2023
Deputy Department Chair, Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2023 - 2024
Committee Member, NIH-NICHD-Eunice Kennedy Shriver - Site Visit, 2017
Committee Member, MGB Study Section, National Institutes of Health, 2016 - 2022
Committee Member, Nucleomics Tools, ZRG1-CB-D, National Human Genome Research Institute, 2015
Committee Member, National Human Genome Research Institute Special Emphasis Panel, 2014
Committee Member, National Human Genome Research Institute Special Emphasis Panel (ZHG1 HGR-M), 2011
Ad Hoc Member, NIH-GMS MGA Study Section, 2010
Ad Hoc Member, NIH-GMS MGC Study Section, 2010
Ad Hoc Member, NIH-GMS MGB Study section, Carbondale, IL, 2008 - 2009
Committee Member, NIH Genes, Genomes, and Genetics Fellowship Study Section, 2008
Committee Member, NIH Institute of Aging Project Study Section, 2007
Committee Chair, American Cancer Society Genetic Mechanisms in Cancer, 2006
Committee Vice Chair, American Cancer Society (National) Scientific Review for Genetic Mechanisms in Cancer, 2005
Committee Member, NIH Program Project Study Section-Child Development Special Emphasis Panel, 2003
Committee Member, American Cancer Society (National) Scientific Review for Genetic Mechanisms in Cancer, 2002 - 2006
Ad Hoc Member, NIH Study Section CDF-1, 2002
Other Professional Positions
Faculty Senate Member, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2011 - 2013
Member of the Research Scholar Review Committee, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2011 - 2012
Member of the Departmental Search Committee, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2008
Member of the Tenure and Promotions Committee, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2007 - 2010
Member of the Special Grants Review Committee, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2007
Member of the Departmental Search Committee, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2006
Organizer of the Molecular Biology and Microbiology Seminar Series, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2004 - 2005
Member of Departmental Search Committee, Southern Illinios University at Carbondale, 2003
Chair of the Molecular Biology and Microbiology Program Operating Paper Committee, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2002
Member of the Development of Integrated Curriculum for the Molecular Biology and Microbiology Graduate Program Committee, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2002
Organizer of the Molecular Biology and Microbiology Seminar Series, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1999 - 2000
Committee Member for Reorganization of Biochemistry Curriculum - Sequence 1, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1999
Member of the Graduate Student Admission Committee, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1997 - 2013
Extramural Institutional Committee Activities
Committee Member, EMC Chair Departmental Advisory Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2024 - 2024
Committee Member, GSBS Membership Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2023 - 2025
Committee Member, GSBS Curriculum Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2021 - 2023
Committee Member, GEC, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2016
Member, GSBS, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2014 - 2015
Committee Member, Graduate Program, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2014
Co-Chair, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Molecular and Cellular Biology Symposium, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2004 - 2006
Committee Member, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Central Research Committee, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2001 - 2004
Subcommittee Member, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Research Pathways Subcommittee for Curriculum, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2000
Chair, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Molecular and Cellular Biology Symposium, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1994 - 2003
Editorial Activities
Editor/Service on Editorial Board(s), Nucleic Acids Research Cancer, 2019 - Present
Editor/Service on Editorial Board(s), Biology, 2019 - Present
Member of Editorial Review Board, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2014 - Present
Editor/Service on Editorial Board(s), Epigenetics, 2013 - Present
Honors & Awards
| 2006 | Excellence through Commitment Award, Outstanding Scholar, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale |
| 1999 - 2002 | American Cancer Society Researcher Award |
| 1988 - 1991 | American Cancer Society Fellow, University of California, San Diego, Center for Molecular Genetics |
Professional Memberships
Selected Presentations & Talks
Formal Peers
- 2025. Interplay between SWI/SNF and eRNA. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2025. “Chromatin Remodeling Complexes in Cancer”. Omaha, Nebraska, US.
- 2025. SWI/SNF, eRNA and condensate dynamics. Banff, CA.
- 2024. SWI/SNF, non-coding RNA and nuclear condensates. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2023. Mammalian SWI/SNF, enhancer activation and eRNA. Cold Spring, New York, US.
- 2023. New Insights into the mechanisms of ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling and nuclear condensates. Invited. Bethesda, MD, US.
- 2022. SWI/SNF and its AT-hook is required for de novo enhancer activation in cell lineage priming. Snowbird, Utah, US.
- 2022. ATP-dependent remodeler and promoter/enhancer architecture. Invited. New Orleans, LA, US.
- 2021. Activation and decommissioning of enhancers by SWI/SNF. Invited. West Lafayette, IN, US.
- 2021. SWItching from Pluripotent to Cell Lineage Priming. Invited. Virtual, US.
- 2020. A time to pause - SWI/SNF in early development. Invited. San Diego, CA, US.
- 2019. ATP Dependent Chromatin Remodelers. Invited. West Lafayette, IN, US.
- 2019. Regulation of Chromatin Organization and Dynamics by the SWI/SNF Chromatin remodeler. Invited. Austin, TX, US.
- 2017. Chromatin Remodeling Mechanisms (Hurricane interfered with visit). Invited. Tallahassee, FL, US.
- 2017. Auto-Regulation of SWI/SNF Chromatin Remodeler. Invited. Durham, NC, US.
- 2016. Auto-regulation of SWI/SNF. Invited. Chicago, IL, US.
- 2013. Structure and Function of SWI/SNF and the Interplay with Histone Acetylation. Invited. Boston, MA, US.
- 2013. ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers and the chromatin landscape. Invited, VA, US.
- 2013. ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers and the chromatin landscape. Invited, VA, US.
- 2013. Distinct Mechanisms of Chromatin Remodeling. Invited, NY, US.
- 2013. Nucleosome Organization and ATP-dependent Chromatin Remodeling. Invited. Cleveland, OH, US.
- 2012. Regulation of the Chromatin Landscape by ATP-Dependent Chromatin Remodelers. Invited, PA, US.
- 2012. Mechanisms of ATP-dependent Chromatin Remodeling. Invited, OK, US.
- 2012. Structure & Function of ATP-dependent Chromatin Remodelers. Invited, IA, US.
- 2012. ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers regulate the chromatin landscape. Invited. Cincinnati, OH, US.
- 2011. Regulation of ATP-dependent Remodeling. Invited. Springfield, IL, US.
- 2011. Diversity of Operation in ATP-dependent Chromatin Remodeling. Invited. Maywood, IL, US.
- 2011. Approaches for examining large macromolecular structures involved in gene regulation. Invited. Chicago, IL, US.
- 2010. Regulation of ATP-Dependent Chromatin Remodeling. Invited, UT, US.
- 2010. Seminar Speaker. Invited, AR, US.
- 2010. Seminar Speaker. Invited, FL, US.
- 2009. Speaker. Invited. Chicago, IL, US.
- 2009. Speaker. Invited, MI, US.
- 2009. Speaker. Invited, IN, US.
- 2009. Regulation of the Epigenome; structure and function of ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes. Invited, OH, US.
- 2008. Speaker. Invited, PA, US.
- 2007. Seminar Speaker. Invited. Rochester, NY, US.
- 2007. Structural and Functional Studies of ATP-dependent Chromatin Remodeling. Invited, MD, US.
- 2006. MBG Seminar Series. Invited. Ithaca, NY, US.
- 2006. ATP-dependent Remodeling of Chromatin. Invited. Houston, TX, US.
- 2005. The unraveling of the nucleosome. Invited. Miami, FL, US.
- 2005. Mechanism of ATP dependent chromatin remodeling. Invited. Cleveland, OH, US.
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Shukla, S, Ngubo, M, Paul, S, Kunert, F, Persinger, J, Lee, J, Hopfner, KP, Bartholomew, B. DNA bendability inside the nucleosome regulates INO80’s nucleosome positioning. Mol Cell 85(23):4318-4332.e9, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 41290000.
- Bartholomew, B. Gene promoters are genomically encoded to facilitate histone exchange/incorporation. PLoS biology 23(5 May), 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40359406.
- Shukla, S, Paul, S, Garcia, J, Zhong, Y, Juste, SS, Beauchemin, K, Bartholomew, B. Conformational switching of Arp5 subunit regulates INO80 chromatin remodeling. Nucleic Acids Res 53(2), 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 39676660.
- Lee, J, Chatterjee, B, Oh, N, Saha, D, Lu, Y, Bartholomew, B, Ishak, CA. Introductory Analysis and Validation of CUT&RUN Sequencing Data. Journal of Visualized Experiments 2024(214), 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39760380.
- Saha, D, Animireddy, S, Lee, J, Thommen, A, Murvin, MM, Lu, Y, Calabrese, JM, Bartholomew, B. Enhancer switching in cell lineage priming is linked to eRNA, Brg1’s AT-hook, and SWI/SNF recruitment. Mol Cell 84(10):1855-1869.e5, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38593804.
- Saha D, Hailu S, Hada A, Lee J, Luo J, Ranish JA, Lin YC, Feola K, Persinger J, Jain A, Liu B, Lu Y, Sen P, Bartholomew B. The AT-hook is an evolutionarily conserved auto-regulatory domain of SWI/SNF required for cell lineage priming. Nat Commun 14(1):4682, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37542049.
- Bhardwaj SK, Hailu SG, Olufemi L, Brahma S, Kundu S, Hota SK, Persinger J, Bartholomew B. Dinucleosome specificity and allosteric switch of the ISW1a ATP-dependent chromatin remodeler in transcription regulation. Nat Commun 11(1):5913, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33219211.
- He W, Zhang L, Villarreal OD, Fu R, Bedford E, Dou J, Patel AY, Bedford MT, Shi X, Chen T, Bartholomew B, Xu H. De novo identification of essential protein domains from CRISPR-Cas9 tiling-sgRNA knockout screens. Nat Commun 10(1):4541, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31586052.
- Hada A, Hota SK, Luo J, Lin YC, Kale S, Shaytan AK, Bhardwaj SK, Persinger J, Ranish J, Panchenko AR, Bartholomew B. Histone Octamer Structure Is Altered Early in ISW2 AT-Dependent Nucleosome Remodeling. Cell Rep 28(1):282-294.e6, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31269447.
- Brahma S, Ngubo M, Paul S, Udugama M, Bartholomew B. The Arp8 and Arp4 module acts as a DNA sensor controlling INO80 chromatin remodeling. Nat Commun 9(1):3309, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30120252.
- Brahma S, Udugama MI, Kim J, Hada A, Bhardwaj SK, Hailu SG, Lee TH, Bartholomew B. INO80 exchanges H2A.Z for H2A by translocating on DNA proximal to histone dimers. Nat Commun 8:15616, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28604691.
- Sen P, Luo J, Hada A, Hailu SG, Dechassa ML, Persinger J, Brahma S, Paul S, Ranish J, Bartholomew B. Loss of Snf5 Induces Formation of an Aberrant SWI/SNF Complex. Cell Rep 18(9):2135-2147, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28249160.
- Prasad R, D'Arcy S, Hada A, Luger K, Bartholomew B. Coordinated action of Nap1 and RSC in disassembly of tandem nucleosomes. Mol Cell Biol 36(17):2262-71, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27273866.
- Harada BT, Hwang WL, Deindl S, Chatterjee N, Bartholomew B, Zhuang X. Stepwise nucleosome translocation by RSC remodeling complexes. Elife 5, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 26895087.
- Chatterjee N, North JA, Dechassa ML, Manohar M, Prasad R, Luger K, Ottesen JJ, Poirier MG, Bartholomew B. Histone Acetylation near the Nucleosome Dyad Axis Enhances Nucleosome Disassembly by RSC and SWI/SNF. Mol Cell Biol 35(23):4083-92, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26416878.
- Lafon A, Taranum S, Pietrocola F, Dingli F, Loew D, Brahma S, Bartholomew B, Papamichos-Chronakis M. INO80 Chromatin Remodeler Facilitates Release of RNA Polymerase II from Chromatin for Ubiquitin-Mediated Proteasomal Degradation. Mol Cell 60(5):784-796, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26656161.
- Kim SA, Chatterjee N, Jennings MJ, Bartholomew B, Tan S. Extranucleosomal DNA enhances the activity of the LSD1/CoREST histone demethylase complex. Nucleic Acids Res 43(10):4868-80, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25916846.
- Kapoor P, Bao Y, Xiao J, Luo J, Shen J, Persinger J, Peng G, Ranish J, Bartholomew B, Shen X. Regulation of Mec1 kinase activity by the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex. Genes Dev 29(6):591-602, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25792597.
- Li M, Hada A, Sen P, Olufemi L, Hall MA, Smith BY, Forth S, McKnight JN, Patel A, Bowman GD, Bartholomew B, Wang MD. Dynamic regulation of transcription factors by nucleosome remodeling. Elife 4, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26047462.
Invited Articles
- Paul S, Bartholomew B. Regulation of ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers: Accelerators/Brakes, Anchors and Sensors. Biochem Soc Trans 46(6):1423-1430, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30467122.
- Meng H, Bartholomew B. Emerging Roles of Transcriptional Enhancers In Chromatin Looping And Promoter-Proximal Pausing Of RNA Polymerase II. J Biol Chem 293(36):13786-13794, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29187597.
- Bartholomew B. Proteasomes beyond proteolysis: Roles in heterochromatin maintenance. J Biol Chem 292(41):17156-17157, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 29030538.
Review Articles
- Saha, D, Animireddy, S, Bartholomew, B. The SWI/SNF ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complex in cell lineage priming and early development. Biochemical Society Transactions 52(2):603-616, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38572912.
Other Articles
- Bartholomew B, Shukla S, Ngubo M, Paul S, Persinger J, Brahma S New insights into the mechanism and DNA-sequence specificity of INO80 chromatin remodeling. Res Sq Preprint, 2023. PMID: 37961512.
- He W, Zhang L, Villarreal OD, Fu R, Bedford E, Dou J, Patel AY, Bedford MT, Shi X, Chen T, Bartholomew B, Xu H Author Correction: De novo identification of essential protein domains from CRISPR-Cas9 tiling-sgRNA knockout screens. Nat Commun 11(1):1134, 2020. PMID: 32098955.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified September 09, 2026