Dr Maximilian Fitz-James

After a PhD in Edinburgh and a postdoc in Montpellier, I joined the Department of Biology in Oxford in 2025 to set up my independent research group as a Wellcome Career Development Fellow.

We are increasingly realizing that the genetic information encoded in DNA is only part of what makes an organism. Epigenetic information is responsible for incredible variation both between cells within an individual, and between individuals in a population. This information also has the possibility of being transmitted from parent to offspring, providing an epigenetic memory across generations.

I am interested in how epigenetics contribute to heritable phenotypes, adaptation and evolution. I use different insect models to study this in the lab from the level of microscopic molecules all the way to whole organisms and populations.

I teach all aspects of molecular and cell biology to LMH first year students, as well as parts of the second and third year courses relating to epigenetics, chromosomes and genomics.

Polycomb-mediated transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of Drosophila eye colour is independent of small RNAs, Fitz-James, M.H.$, Sparrow, P., Patton, C., Sarkis, P$. Open Biology 15:240298 (2025).

Interchromosomal contacts between regulatory regions trigger stable transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in Drosophila, Fitz-James, M.H., Sabarís, G., Sarkies, P., Bantignies F., Cavalli, G. , Mol Cell 85:667-691.e6 (2024).

Epigenetic Inheritance in Adaptive Evolution, Sabaris, G.*, Fitz-James, M.H.*, Cavalli, G. Ann NY Acad Sci 1524:22-29 (2023).

Molecular mechanisms of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, Fitz-James, M.H., Cavalli, G. Nat Rev Genet 23:325-341 (2022).

Large domains of heterochromatin direct the formation of short mitotic chromosome loops, Fitz-James, M.H., Tong, P., Pidoux, A.L., Ozadam, H., Yang, L., White, S.A., Dekker, J., Allshire, R.C. eLife 9  (2020).