The study will focus on genetic mechanisms underlying blood cell traits in multi-ethnic cohorts, in particular admixed, under-represented U.S. minority populations such as African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos. Yun Li, PhD, Associate Professor of Genetics, Biostatistics and Computer Science (adjunct) has been awarded an R01 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for her project … Read more

Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena, PhD, will take over July 1 from Terry Magnuson, PhD, who will become the vice chancellor for research at UNC-Chapel Hill. Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena, professor of genetics and associate chair for research, will become interim chair of the Department of Genetics effective July 1. He will oversee the department’s research … Read more

Only three Accelerator awards are given each year. They are designed to “support exceptional, independent early-career researchers who have distinguished themselves as promising investigators and are in the beginning stages of establishing successful, sustainable diabetes research programs.” The ADA gives a total of six Pathway awards annually to investigators at different career stages. The award … Read more

Oliver Smithies Investigator Award recipients are selected based on their sustained excellence in their chosen disciplines, their international reputation as a leader in their fields and the impact of their research within the medical and scientific communities. Dr. Pardo-Manuel de Villena was selected for his leadership of the Collaborative Cross, the most genetically diverse mouse … Read more

The title of the article, published in PNAS, is “Lack of pairing during meiosis triggers multigenerational transgene silencing in Caenorhabditis elegans.” Co-first authors are Luciana Leopold, a graduate student in the Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, and Bree Heestand, a postdoctoral fellow in Shawn’s lab. This silencing process can occur for transgenes that are … Read more

Bailey Peck, a Genetics and Molecular Biology graduate student in Praveen Sethupathy’s lab, is first author of a collaborative paper, with Bioinformatics and Computational Biology grad student Matthew Weiser (Furey lab), Shehzad Sheikh, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Genetics (senior author), and Drs. Sethupathy and Furey as coauthors. The article is available online in the … Read more

Jim was one of four discussants on NPR’s “On Point” and coauthor of an editorial in JAMA The “On Point” discussion, related to President Obama’s announcement regarding the Precision Medicine Initiative, is available as a podcast. In the JAMA Viewpoint article, Jim and Michael Watson of the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine argue … Read more

The title of the paper is “Small tRNA-derived RNAs are increased and more abundant than microRNAs in chronic hepatitis B and C.” Sara is a BCB graduate student who is co-mentored by Praveen Sethupathy and Stan Lemon (Department of Medicine). In this study, Selitsky et al. identify for the first time in human tissue the … Read more

Matt Weiser, a graduate student in Terry’s lab, is first author on the paper, entitled “Novel Distal eQTL Analysis Demonstrates Effect of Population Genetic Architecture on Detecting and Interpreting Associations.” Standard eQTL mapping methods carry significant multiple testing burdens, limiting their ability to detect eQTL distal to the affected gene. The article describes a novel … Read more

Shawn and Eric Miska at the University of Cambridge are senior authors on the paper, and Shawn’s former postdoc, Aisa Sakaguchi, and former graduate student, Matt Simon, as co-first authors with Peter Sarkies from Dr. Miska’s lab. This study establishes a role for small RNAs in promoting transgenerational fertility via an endogenous temperature-sensitive silencing process … Read more