About

Christopher "Chris" Hylton was born in Columbia, SC and raised in SC, TN, and NC. He graduated as Class President from Morehead High School in Eden, NC, 2001. Chris earned a B.A. in Film Studies with a minor in Psychology in 2004, at UNC-Wilmington. He has worked as a certified Pharmacy Technician and an assistant manager at Walgreens. In 2010, Chris began studies towards a second bachelor's degree, a B.S. in biology, at UNCG. He completed his B.S. in biology in the summer of 2011 and then entered the UNCG-Biology masters program, where he has enjoyed teaching Introductory Biology labs. When not in the lab, Chris enjoys critiquing films, watching Tennessee Titan football, and spending time with his wife Philna and son Holden.

Research Interests

Chris began research as a post-baccalaureate student, studying the protein dTopors in fruit flies. The goal of his thesis research is to compare this protein in D. melanogaster and in human cells. In humans, the protein is a tumor suppressor, with mutants linked to an inherited form of retinitis pigmentosa. In flies, the protein is involved in meiotic chromosome segregation. Through his research, Chris will investigate the functional conservation between human Topors and the homologous protein of flies.