News

Golnaz Vahedi was recently awarded the Michael S. Brown New Investigator Research Award as part of the 2021 Penn Medicine Awards of Excellence. Read more about the award here. Congratulations…

Gianna Busch has joined Arjun Raj’s lab as a Bioengineering graduate student. Welcome Gianna!

Connie Jiang, a CAMB MD/PhD graduate student, successfully defended her dissertation. Congratulations Connie!

Ben Black was recently awarded an NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award for his work titled Mendelian inheritance of artificial chromosomes. The award is co-sponsored with Mike Lampson from Penn Biology….

The NIH has selected Penn Medicine as one of 25 award recipients across 30 sites in the United States to serve as Impact of Genomic Variation on Function (IGVF) investigators,…

Liling Wan was recently awarded an NIH DP2 New Innovator Award for her work titled Illuminating Transcriptional Condensates Using an Integrated Approach. You can learn more here. Congratulations Liling!

Erica Korb was recently awarded an NIH DP2 New Innovator Award for her work titled The Epigenetic Encoding of Learning and Memory. You can learn more here. Congratulations Erica!

Jennifer Phillips-Cremins was recently awarded an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award for her work titled From 3D Genomes to Neural Connectomes: Higher-Order Chromatin Mechanisms Encoding Long-Term Memory. You can read more…

Phillip Wulfridge (post doc in the Sarma lab, grant co-mentored by M. Bartolomei) was recently awarded an NRSA F32 fellowship to study epigenetic mechanisms of ATRX in genome regulation. Congratulations…

Emily Pickup has joined Jennifer Phillips-Cremins’s lab as a Neuroscience graduate student. Welcome Emily!

Ashley Karnay (CAMB graduate student in the Jain lab) was recently awarded an F31 for her proposal entitled “Deciphering the Molecular Orchestrators of Heterochromatin-Lamina Interactions at the Nuclear Periphery.” Her…

Congratulations to Harshini Chandrashekar (Bioengineering graduate student) from the Phillips-Cremins lab for passing her qualifying exam!

Congratulations to Thomas Malachowski (Bioengineering graduate student) from the Phillips-Cremins lab for passing his qualifying exam!

Rohan Patel has joined Jennifer Phillips-Cremins’s lab as a Bioengineering graduate student. Welcome Rohan!

Avi Waldman has joined Jennifer Phillip-Cremins’s lab as a Bioengineering graduate student. Welcome Avi!

Gina Pacella, a graduate student in the Capell lab, was awarded a F31 grant from NCI for her project entitled “The role of UTX in Epidermal Homeostasis, Carcinogenesis, and Sex…

George Burslem is the recipient of an NIH R35 MIRA grant. Congratulations George!

George Burslem has been awarded a 2021-2022 Leukemia Research Foundation grant. Read more here, and congratulations George!

Jordan Barnett has joined Jennifer Phillips-Cremins’s lab as a computational scientist. Welcome Jordan!

Congratulations to Dan Emerson (Bioengineering graduate student) from the Phillips-Cremins lab for passing his qualifying exam!

Gregory Schwartz (postdoc in the Faryabi lab) will be starting his lab later this year as a faculty member at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto. The lab will focus…

Colin Conine has been selected as one of the 22 Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences. Congratulations Colin!

Liling Wan has been selected as one of the five Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research. Congratulations Liling!

Qinglan Li has joined Liling Wan’s lab as a postdoc fellow. Welcome Qinglan!

Kaeli Mathias (BMB graduate student) has joined Liling Wan’s lab. Welcome Kaeli!

Krista Budinich (CAMB graduate student) has joined Liling Wan’s lab. Welcome Krista!

Congratulations to Jingru Zhao (CAMB graduate student) from the Faryabi Lab for passing her Ph.D. qualifying exam!

Marco Carpenter (PGG graduate student in the Heller) successfully defended his dissertation and graduated. He is the first graduate student from the Heller Lab, a recipient of a 2021 CHOP…

Golnaz Vahedi has been promoted with tenure to Associate Professor here at Penn. Congratulations Golnaz!

Linda Zhou, a grad student in the Phillips-Cremins lab, wins the Saul Winegrad award for 2021 best thesis for Penn GCB. Congratulations Linda!

Marisa Bartolomei has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Congratulations Marisa!

Ken Zaret was elected as a 2021 fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Congratulations Ken!

Shelley Berger was elected as a 2021 fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research. Congratulations Shelley!

Rajan Jain, MD is the recipient of the 2021 Donald Seldin~Holly Smith Award for Pioneering Research from the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). Dr. Jain will receive an unrestricted…

Anna Kiseleva, postdoc in the Epstein lab, is the recipient of an AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship for her grant entitled Hdac3 loss induces changes in the chromatin organization leading to cardiac…

Wonho Kim, postdoc in the Jain lab, is the recipient of an AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship for his grant entitled BRD4-mediated genome folding in smooth muscle cell differentiation. Congratulations Wonho!

Paula Agudelo Garcia (postdoc in the Berger lab, grant co-mentored by E. John Wherry) is the recipient of an NRSA F32 Fellowship to study how metabolism regulates the epigenetic landscape…

Irfan Asangani was recently awarded a Department of Defense Idea Expansion Award (2021-2024) for his proposal entitled “PP2A activation as a therapy for AR addicted refractory castration-resistant prostate cancer.” Congratulations…

Irfan Asangani was recently awarded the Conquer Cancer Now Award 2020-2022 from Concern Foundation for his grant entitled “Towards understanding and targeting transcriptional addiction in advanced prostate cancer.” Read more…

Kiara Rodriguez-Acevedo, who attended the SUIP program last summer in the Korb lab and will be joining Penn as a CAMB graduate student this fall, was awarded the NSF graduate…

Dr. Michael Guo, postdoctoral research fellow in the Cremins lab, is awarded an NIH R25 physician-scientist research fellowship. Congratulations!

Gabor Egervari, a postdoc in the Berger lab, is the recipient of a K99/R00 transition award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to study how alcohol affects…

Balint Kacsoh, a postdoc in the Berger lab, took second place in the Annual Biomedical Postdoctoral Symposium poster presentation contest. Congratulations Balint!

The January 2021 edition of the Canadian Journal of Zoology features a photo of a leaf cutter ant taken by Balint Kacsoh, a postdoc in the Berger lab, on the…

Marco Carpenter, a postdoctoral fellow who will be joining the Heller lab in June 2021, received a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for Academic Diversity at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Welcome…

Marissa Maroni (NGG graduate student) has joined Erica Korb’s lab. Welcome!

Juan Serrano (Kohli Lab) was awarded an NIH F31 individual fellowship and also given a 2020 Patel Family Scholar Award from the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. Congratulations!

Nik Evitt (Shi/Kohli labs) was awarded an NIH F30 individual fellowship. Congratulations!

Golnaz Vahedi recently received a W. W. Smith Charitable Trust Research Award – congratulations! The W. W. Smith Charitable Trust funds basic science research in the areas of heart disease,…

Dr. Elizabeth Heller was recently awarded a research grant award from the SynGAP Research Fund to support her lab’s work in epigenetic regulation of SynGAP1-related intellectual disability. With the SynGAP…

Elizabeth Heller has received U18 funding from the NIH -NIDA Step Up for Substance Use Disorders (SUD): A Drug Target Initiative for Scientists Engaged in Fundamental Research, to study Nr4a1…

Ken Zaret is featured in the newly posted episode “Pioneer Transcription Factors and Their Influence on Chromatin Structure” Shelley Berger is featured in an episode from last year, “Epigenetic Mechanisms…

Golnaz Vahedi has received U01 funding from the NIH to study transcriptomic and epigenomic of T cells in type 1 diabetes. Penn faculty John Wherry is a co-PI on this…

Hongjun Song has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Congratulations Hongjun!

Roberto Bonasio is a recipient of the 2020 Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award for his outstanding research in the field of epigenetics. Congratulations Roberto!

Ben Garcia has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Congratulations!

Neha Srikumar was awarded a graduate fellowship slot on the NIH T32 Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics training grant. Congratulations!

Ben Garcia has been selected to receive the HUPO Discovery in Proteomics Science Award. Congratulations!

Heejong Kim was awarded an NIH NRSA F31 Graduate Fellowship from the NIA. Congratulations!

Lindsay Pino was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship slot on the Immunology of Normal and Neoplastic Lymphocytes NIH T32 training grant. Congratulations!

Mia Levine and Mike Lampson have received an R21 award from NIH/NICHD, titled “Evolutionary innovation to preserve zygotic genome integrity.” Congratulations!

Rexxi Prasasya in the Bartolomei lab was awarded an NIH NRSA postdoctoral fellowship. Congratulations!

Golnaz Vahedi is the recipient of a Burroughs Wellcome Fund for 2020 Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease. Congratulations!

Erica Korb is the recipient of a NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. Congratulations!

Jon Beagan from the Cremins Lab wins the 2020 Sol Pollack award for the PhD thesis representing original research at the forefront of its field. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Katelyn Titus from the Cremins Lab for passing her Ph.D. qualifying exam!

Congratulations to Ali Nikish from the Cremins Lab for passing her Ph.D. qualifying exam!

The Cremins lab receives funding through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for a Neurodegenerative Disease Pairs collaboration with Dr. Kristen Brennand. Congratulations!

Danying Guan joins the Cremins lab for the summer as part of the The American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) Virtual Summer Research Program. Welcome Danying!

Brian Capell has received an R01 from NIH for his proposal entitled “Epigenetic Enhancer Control in Maintaining Homeostasis and Preventing Carcinogenesis in the Epidermis.” Congratulations!

Connie Jiang, an MD/PhD graduate student in the Raj lab, received an F30 award for her work entitled “Revealing the molecular underpinnings of transcriptional heterogeneity.” Congratulations!

Eric Sanford, an MD/PhD graduate student in the Raj lab, received an F30 award for his work entitled “How does a gene integrate multiple signals?” Congratulations!

Yogesh Goyal, a postdoc in the Raj lab, received a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Science Interface (CASI) for his work entitled “Biochemical trajectories guiding rare cell plasticity…

Jessica Li, a graduate student in MSTP/CAMB, has joined the Raj lab. Welcome!

Fang-Yi Chu has joined the Raj lab as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome!

Yael Heyman has joined the Raj lab as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome!

EMBL is hosting a virtual workshop on Neuroepigenetics: From Cells to Behaviour and Disease. The event is co-organized by Roberto Bonasio and you can register online here.

Liling Wan is the recipient of a New Investigator Award from the Leukemia Research Foundation. Read more here – congratulations!

Congratulations to Balint Kacsoh, a postdoc in the Berger lab, on his admittance as an early career scientist to the Genetics Society of America leadership program! Read more here.

Jenny Luppino, a graduate student (CAMB program) received an F31 award from NICHD for the proposal “Elucidating the role of chromatin architecture in the pathophysiology of Cornelia de Lange Syndrome.”…

Julianna Supplee, a graduate student in the BMB program, has jointly joined the Wellen lab and Ronen Marmorstein’s lab as a co-mentorship. Welcome to the program!

Luke Izzo, a graduate student (CAMB program) in the Wellen lab, has been awarded a slot on the Tumor Virology T32 training grant. Congratulations!

Doris Wagner recently received an NSF Plant Genome Research Program Grant to examine whether there are different modes of Polycomb recruitment in plants with small as opposed to large genomes….

Alex Wei, a PhD student (NGG program) from the Wu lab recently received an F31 grant from NHGRI for research on “Dissecting Gene Regulatory Roles of TET Enzymes and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine…

Irfan Asangani received an NIH R01 grant for research on the Role of MED1 in the AR-dependent transcription in advanced prostate cancer. Congratulations!

Irfan Asanagi received an award from the Sarcoma Foundation of America for the proposal “EWS-FLI1 triggered opportunistic de novo enhancer assembly activates potential cellular therapy targets in Ewing Sarcoma.” Congratulations!

Laura Pinheiro is a new PhD student (BMB program) in the Wellen lab. Welcome to the Institute!

Joyce Liu, an MD/PhD student (BMB program) in the Wellen lab, was awarded an F30 fellowship. Congratulations!

Mike Murphy is a new PhD student (NGG program) in the Heller lab, and received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for research entitled “Sex-specific shifts in decision-making resulting from chronic-stress…

Marco Carpenter, a graduate student in the Heller Lab, received the NIDA Drug Abuse Dissertation Research Award (R36) for work entitled “Nr4a1 activation suppresses Cocaine-induced behavior via epigenetic regulation of…

Congratulations to Roberto Bonasio on his promotion to tenure!

Golnaz Vahedi is part of a team of researchers that received a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to investigate the impacts of childhood obesity on immune function. Read a…

Congratulations to Rahul Kohli on his promotion to tenure!

Congratulations to Jenn Phillips-Cremins on her promotion to tenure!

Golnaz Vahedi, along with Jorge Henao-Meija and Sarah Henrickson, received a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative grant for their proposal “Understanding Inflammation’s Role in Childhood Obesity.” Read more here. Congratulations!

We are pleased to announce that Jenn Phillips-Cremins is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award for her work on engineering genome topology to attenuate pathologic short tandem repeat instability….

Congratulations to the Sarma lab for receiving a grant from the Simons Foundation for Autism Research!

Congratulations to the Sarma lab for receiving a grant from the Margaret Q Landenberger Research Foundation!

Congratulations to the Sarma lab for receiving a grant from the Simons Foundation for Autism Research!

Congratulations to the Sarma lab for receiving a grant from the Margaret Q Landenberger Research Foundation!

Check out this press release from Penn Medicine News on a new paper published by the Vahedi lab on the role of chromatin misfolding in Type 1 Diabetes!

Congratulations to the Sarma lab for receiving a grant from the WW Smith Charitable Trust!

Hey Isabel here, I’m a third year PhD student in the CAMB/DSRB graduate program. In the Anguera lab we are especially interested in dosage compensation, a mechanism to balance the…

Hi there, I’m Camille. As a sixth year CAMB/DSRB graduate student who recently defended, I’m finishing up my time as a PhD student in the Anguera Lab. Research in the…

Briana Renn wasn’t sure what career path she wanted to follow, then she took a free 4-week program on reproductive sciences and her outlook changed. She had always been interested…

Hi, I’m Mariel. I’m a third year graduate student joint between Ben Garcia and Shelley Berger. My research mainly focuses on the mechanisms of the metabolic enzyme ACSS2, which converts…

I’m Dylan, a 5th year graduate student in Ben Garcia’s lab. My research focuses on the use of proteomics to study how the histone code can be dysregulated in cancer….

I am Ramya Billur, a post-doctoral fellow in the Black lab at UPenn’s Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. I am presently investigating PARP-1 functions in DNA repair and transcriptional regulation….

Hi, I’m Alice, a rotation student in Ben Black’s lab. I’m currently working with Praveen on the stoichiometry of centromere assembly and centromere-kinetochore interaction during mitosis. I am a first-year…

I’m Praveen, a post-doctoral fellow in the Black lab at the University of Pennsylvania. My current research focuses on understanding centromere-kinetochore functions during cell division. My background is in biochemistry…

Listen to Shelley Berger talk about the epigenetic mechanisms of aging and longevity on this podcast recorded at the recent EMBO | EMBL Symposium: Metabolism Meets Epigenetics

Work from the Berger lab on the epigenetics of social behavior in ants was recently featured in Penn Medicine News, the Scientist, and Science News. Congratulations to everyone involved!

CAMB-MVP student Christin Herrmann from the Weitzman lab successfully defended her thesis on October 31st. Congratulations!

Congratulations to the Wellen, Asangani, and Marmorstein labs for being awarded an AFCRI Discovery Pilot Grant for a collaborative project called “Probing the metabolism-epigenetics link as a therapeutic target in…

From Black Lab: The Scientist recently featured coverage of a paper from Ben Black’s lab on advances in human artificial chromosome development. Read the article here – congratulations to everyone…

A new study published in Nature from the Berger lab explores how acetate, a byproduct of alcohol breakdown, changes the epigenetic environment of the brain. Read more here. Elizabeth Heller…

Steven Zhao, a CAMB graduate student in the Wellen lab, will be defending his thesis on Oct 30 at 1 pm. Stay tuned for more information!

Montserrat Anguera has received a grant from the Lupus Research Alliance for her proposal “Targeting the inactive X for correcting dosage imbalances in lupus.” Congratulations Montserrat!

Yaroslav Morozov, a postdoc in the Greenberg lab, was awarded an Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship. Congratulations Yaroslav!

Roger Greenberg has been named the Director of the newly established Penn Center for Genome Integrity (PCGI). Co-Directors are Ben Black and Matt Weitzman and the Institute includes leadership team…

Brian Capell was awarded a grant from the Penn Abramson Cancer Center Head and Neck Cancer Center. Congratulations Brian!

An article in Penn Today highlights the Penn Academy for Reproductive Sciences (PARS), a high school program geared at teaching high school girls about fertility, epigenetics, and other areas of…

The collaboration between the Vahedi lab and Dr. Joe Fraietta was funded by the Abramson Cancer Center and Institute for Biomedical Informatics for the application titled “Single-cell mapping of the…

A recent paper from the Asangani lab published in Cancer Discovery was highlighted in Penn Medicine News. Congratulations to all the authors!

Congratulations to Doris Wagner for receiving a grant from the NSF to study a putative PRC2 accessory protein with roles in stress response!

The Sarma lab was recently funded by the Basser Center for BRCA to investigate R-loop dynamics as an indicator of cancer vulnerability in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutant cancers. Congratulations!

The Capell lab recently received a $50,000 pilot grant from the NIEHS Penn Center for Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) to investigate the Role of Epigenetics and Enhancers in Ultraviolet…

Nature Review Genetics has recently highlighted a paper from the Cremins lab on Light-Activated Dynamic Looping. Congratulations to all the authors!

Linda Zhou, an MD/PhD student from the Cremins lab, is the recipient of an NIH F30 Grant starting September 2019. Congratulations Linda!

Miriam Minsk, an undergraduate researcher from the Cremins Lab, is the recipient of the best research presentation award for her summer Rachleff scholar’s research. Congratulations Miriam!

The Cremins and Raj labs, along with Casey Brown in the Department of Genetics, are recipients of the 2019 National Science Foundation Emerging Frontiers in Research Innovation (EFRI) grant in…

A recent paper published in Cell on human artificial chromosomes from the Black lab has been highlighted by Penn Medicine News and AAAS. Congratulations to everyone involved!

Erica Korb received the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award in Neuroscience, awarded to young investigators. Congratulations Erica!

Penn Medicine News recently highlighted a new paper from the Greenberg lab. Read more here!

Roger Greenberg received a Gray Foundation Team Science Award. Congratulations!

Postdoc Yaroslav Morozov was placed on the Tumor Virology T32 training grant. Congratulations!

Gabor Egervari is the recipient of a Brody Family Medical Trust Fund Fellowship in Incurable Diseases and an Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship. Congratulations!

Charly Good is the recipient of an F32 NRSA postdoctoral grant from the National Cancer Institute. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Lacey Luense who won the Best Trainee Talk at the Cornell Center for Reproductive Genomics Symposium!

Congratulations to Montserrat Anguera for being promoted to Associate Professor with tenure!

Graduate student Shaun Egolf is a recipient of the Dermatology Pre-doctoral T32 grant. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Sierra McDonald for being awarded the NRSA F31 Pre-doctoral fellowship from the NIH and the Parker Scholar Award from the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy!

Congrats to Lacey Luense for winning Best Trainee Talk at the Cornell Center for Reproductive Genomics Symposium.

Yaroslav Morozov was named to Tumor Virology Training Grant!

Khadija Wilson has been awarded an NSF Graduate Fellowship.

Hee Jong Kim has been selected for the NIH Chemistry-Biology Interface training grant fellowship. Congratulations!

Yekaterina Kori won first place in the graduate student poster competition at the United States Human Proteome Organization Conference.

Peder Lund has received a Chrohn’s and Colitis Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship

Josue Baeza is awarded an American Society for Mass Spectrometry Postdoctoral Career Development Award

Robert Dilley was awarded the Saul Winegrad Award for outstanding thesis. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Tianpeng Zhang for winning the Forbeck Scholar Award in Telomeres and Telomerase targeting!

Congratulations to Montserrat Anguera who was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure!

Roger Greenberg has been named the J. Samuel Staub, MD Endowed Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine. The Professorship is awarded to a nationally prominent educator and physician, focusing…

Congratulations to Doris Wagner for being named a 2019 Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists! The award is granted in recognition of distinguished and long-term contributions to plant…

Congratulations to Brian Capell and his lab for being awarded the Dermatology Foundation’s Stiefel Award for Skin Cancer!

Mariel Mendoza (joint advised by Shelley Berger and Ben Garcia) has been awarded an NIH Diversity Supplement grant award from the National Cancer Institute.

Lisa Vrooman (postdoctoral fellow in the Bartolomei lab) was awarded best short talk at the International Federation of Placenta Associations (IFPA) meeting in Japan in September.

Aimee Juan (a combined degree student in the Bartolomei lab) was awarded an F31 from NICHD, entitled, Investigating the Epigenetic Regulation of Imprinted Gene Grb10 in Neurodevelopment.

Roger Greenberg named co-Chair and Keynote Speaker, NCI Workshop on the BRCA phenotype and human cancer.

Disease-Associated Short Tandem Repeats Co-localize with Chromatin Domain Boundaries Read More.

Simone Sidoli, a former postdoctoral fellow, has accepted a faculty position at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Congratulations to Roger Greenberg on receiving this year’s Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award!

MD/PhD candidate, Linda Zhou, of the Cremins lab is a recipient of the Blavatnik Family Fellowship.

The Department of Genetics is pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 Kaushal Family Awards in Genetics, which recognize excellence in genetic research by predoctoral and postdoctoral scholars, as…

In 2011, the Department of Genetics established the “Tom Kadesch Prize in Genetics” to honor the legacy of our friend and colleague Dr. Tom Kadesch. Dr. Kadesch was a member…

Former resident fellow in the lab, Dr. John Wojcik, began his appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman…

How Dad’s Genes Can Prepare Mom for Parenthood Read More

Robert L. Dilley successfully defended his thesis entitled, Mechanisms of Telomere Repair Synthesis.

Worker Ants: You Could Have Been Queens Read More

Eric Joyce awarded an R35 MIRA grant, entitled Regulation of chromatin folding in space and time.

Amber Weiner has been awarded an NIH F31 NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship.

Khadija Wilson has been awarded an NIH Pharmacology T32 graduate training fellowship.

Yekaterina Kori has been awarded a Penn NIH Chemistry-Biology Interface graduate training fellowship

Listen to Dr. Shelley Berger talk about the limitations of what our genes can determine.] Listen here.

Geoff Dann, a postdoc from the Garcia lab, has been awarded a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship, congrats!

Brian Capell received a Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award, ‘Defining the role of epigenetic enhancer dysfunction in epithelial carcinogenesis.’ Press release found here.

Using statistics to uncover the truth about individual cells Read More

Jennifer Cremins has been awarded a Brain Research Foundation Seed Grant on ‘Elucidating the role for 3D genome topology disruption in trinucleotide repeat expansion disorders’.

Dr. Jie Chen received the Michael Brown Penn-GSK Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Dr. Anumita Saha awarded a Michael S. Brown Penn-GSK Postdoctoral Fellowship

Montserrat Anguera was awarded an R01 from NIAID, “Gene regulation from the inactive X in activated B cells”

Montserrat Anguera awarded a 2018 Department of Defense Lupus Research Program Grant.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Levani Zandarashvili, awarded an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Fellowship, “Molecular Mechanisms of PARP-1 Inhibition.”

Graduate student, Lucie Guo, won the Saul Winegrad Award for Outstanding Dissertation in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, “CENP-A and Friends: a Collaborative Model for the Epigenetic Transmission of Centromere Identity”

Ben Garcia has been awarded the Biemann Medal by the American Society for Mass Spectrometry – one of the highest honors that the society awards, given in recognition of significant…

Congratulations to our Epigenetics Institute Leader, Shelley Berger, for being elected to the National Academy of Sciences! Read more here.

Congratulations to Brian Capell for being awarded the Young Physician Scientist Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation in Chicago!

Graduate student Qinqin Jiang will defend her PhD on April 6th and begin a postdoc with Bill Kaelin at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Postdoc Shane Harding has accepted a faculty position as Assistant Professor, Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto.

Ben Black promoted to full professor.

Doris Wager appointed as the Robert I. Williams Term Professor of Biology,  a five year endowed term chair position.

Brian Capell has been awarded the Basic/Translational Research Award.   Read More. 

Penn Study Shows that the “Epigenetic Landscape” is Protective in Normal Aging, Impaired in Alzheimer’s Disease Read More

Graduate student Enrique Lin has been selected to attend the 68th Lindau Nobel Meeting among 600 young scientists across 68 countries.

Penn Study on Super-silenced DNA Hints at New Ways to Reprogram Cells   Read More. 

How Does a Cell Maintain its Identity During Replication?   Read More. 

Highly Mutated Protein in Skin Cancer Plays Central Role in Skin Cell Renewal   Read More.

Brian Capell, M.D., Ph.D. received the 2018 Young Investigator Award from the American Academy of Dermatology, for his project ‘How Disrupted Epigenetics Drives Carcinogenesis.’  

Congrats to Roger Greenberg, M.D, Ph.D. for his election to the National Academy of Physicians.

“Icebreaker” Protein Opens Genome for T cell Development, Penn Researchers Find Read More

New genomic analyses indicate that pioneer transcription factors can sample a diverse repertoire of common binding sites among different cell types and become enriched where they cooperate with other factors…

Understanding and Exploiting the Heterogeneity of Cell Intrinsic and Extrinsic Responses to DNA Damage in BRCA Mutant Cancer Cells V Foundation Convergence Team Science Award Susan Domchek, Ronny Drapkin, Andy…

Penn Study on Super-silenced DNA Hints at New Ways to Reprogram Cells Learn More

Calling him “an outstanding, pioneering investigator,” the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has honored Jonathan Epstein of the Perelman School of Medicine with an Outstanding Investigator Award. The prize…

Awarded a Pilot and Feasibility Grant from the NIH P30-funded Penn Skin Biology and Disease Resource-based Center (SBDRC), “Understanding the role of KMT2D and KMT2C in epithelial differentiation and carcinogenesis”.

Mia Levine awarded the NIGMS Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) (R35), “Causes and functional consequences of chromatin evolution.”

Arjun Raj awarded a Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative Human Cell Atlas Grant, “Accelerating tools and technologies for imaging approaches to perform spatial genomics on intact tissues” Learn More

Penn Study Shows How Female Immune Cells Keep Their Second X Chromosome Shut Off Learn More.  

Research led by Rajan Jain and Jonathan Epstein of the Perelman School of Medicine suggests that the three-dimensional organization of DNA in the nucleus determines a cell’s ultimate destiny. Learn…

PIK professors Michael Platt and Shelley Berger are embarking on a joint research project focused on how stress affects the brain and behavior. They discussed their burgeoning collaboration with Knowledge@Warton….

Hao Wu of the Perelman School of Medicine has received the New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health. With this grant, the Wu lab aims to study the…

Kavitha Sarma, Ph.D. NIH awarded the Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2) for her research on “Epigenetic regulation through the formation and resolution of R loops.” Learn More

Cell Stress Response Sheds Light on Treating Inflammation-related Cancer, Aging Learn More

Barbara Terzic, graduate student from the Zhou lab, awarded an NIH F31 NRSA, “Investigating the role of CDKL5 in the synapse”.  

How Brain Develops Before Birth is Tightly Controlled by RNA Modification Learn More  

2017-2018 Distinguished Seminar Series Schedule PDF

Postdoctoral Fellow, Lisa Vrooman from the Bartolomei Lab, Awarded NIH F32 Fellowship! ‘Investigation of epigenetic and morphological placental abnormalities induced by in vitro fertilization’.

Marisa Bartolomei and Rebecca Simmons Awarded R01! Project Title: Preconception phthalate exposure and offspring outcomes  Grant Type: R01 Sponsor: NIEHS (r01es028206) Dates: 9/1/2017 to 8/31/2022

Marisa Bartolomei Awarded R01! Project Title: Long-term physiological and behavioral outcomes, epigenetic profiles and multigenerational phenotypes in a mouse art model Grant Type: R01 Sponsor: NICHD (r01hd092266) Dates: 8/15/2017 to…

Graduate student, Camille Syrett from the Montserrat Lab, awarded a NIH-NRSA fellowship from NIGMS! ‘Maintenance of X-chromosome inactivation during B cell development.’

Maya Capelson Awarded R01! Project Title: Nuclear Pore Complexes As Scaffolds For Genome Architecture And Epigenetic Maintenance Grant Type: R01 Sponsor: NIGMS/NIH Dates: 09/2017-08/2022

Detection of early pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma with thrombospondin-2 and CA19-9 blood markers Learn More.

Congrats to Mia Levine for receiving the Allan Wilson Junior Award for Independent Research. Learn More.

Doris Wagner shows PREs broadly underpin Polycomb recruitment in plant Learn More.  

Congrats to our former graduate student (Berger Lab) Philipp Mews for receiving the 2017 Tom Kadesch Prize. Learn More. In 2011, the Department of Genetics established the Tom Kadesch Prize…

Congrats to our former postdoc (Berger Lab) Dan Bose for receiving the 2017 Kaushal Award! Dan Bose publication nominated The Department of Genetics is pleased to announce the winners of…

Gene-Editing-Induced Changes in Ant Social Communication Cement the Insect’s Utility for Biomedical Research Learn More.  

How DNA Damage Turns Immune Cells Against Cancer: New findings suggest modifying the cell replication cycle could make combo therapies more successful. Learn More.

Congratulations to Elizabeth Heller for receiving the NIDA Avenir Award (DP1DA044250), Chromatin-mediated alternative splicing in reward pathophysiology

Congrats to Mitchell A. Lazar, M.D, Ph.D. for his election to the National Academy of Sciences Learn More.

Ben Garcia has been elected to represent the Human Proteome Organization governing council (Western Region rep.) from January 2017 to December 2019 Learn More.

Congrats to Enrique Lin Shiao for receiving the NRSA( F31) award and the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for 2017

Postdoc Tre Artis won first prize at the PREP symposium

Postdoc Lacey Luense to be awarded a Lalor Foundation Merit Award at the 2017 SSR Meeting

Congrats to Roger Greenberg, Ph.D., MD, for being promoted to full professor Since joining the faculty at Penn in 2007, Roger’s scientific trajectory has been spectacular. He has established an extremely…

Stand Up To Cancer Awards $1 Million to Four Research Teams Through Phillip A. Sharp Awards Awards Advance “Innovation in Collaboration” Among Scientists NEW YORK, April 24, 2017– Stand Up…

Penn Team Identifies Genetic Target for Growing Hardier Plants Under Stress Learn More.

Marisa Bartolomei, Ph.D. was awarded the 2017 Genetics Society Medal from the British Society for Developmental Biology Learn More.

Penn Study Finds Sons of Cocaine-using Fathers Have Profound Memory Impairments Learn More.  

Stem Cells Collected From Fat May Have Use in Anti-Aging Treatments Learn More.

Fateful imprints A mysterious method of gene control, and the rare diseases it causes, is shedding its secrets. Read More    

We are pleased to announce the elevation to Institute status of the Penn Epigenetics Program. Established in 2009, the program has expanded dramatically in size and impact, attracting outstanding faculty…

Ben Garcia has been promoted to Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

27th Annual Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Retreat Wednesday, December 14, 2016 BRB Auditorium and Lobby Stellar Lecture at 4 PM Dr. Marcelo Wood, UC Irvine Chair, Department of Neurobiology and…

Epigenetic regulation of intestinal stem cells by Tet1-mediated DNA hydroxymethylation Learn More.

First Glimpse of End-of Chromosome Repair in Real Time Penn Study Describes Mechanism of Chromosome Maintenance that Drives 15 Percent of Cancers Learn More.  

Congratulations to Dr. Shelley Berger for being the 2016 recipient of the Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award AND the Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs Distinguished Mentor Award!

New Mouse Model Points to Drug Target Potentially Useful for Increasing Social Interaction in Autism Learn More.

Q & A with a One-time Hollywood “Ant Wrangler” Read More…

Penn Bioengineers Show Why Lab-made Stem Cells Might Fail: Errors in DNA Folding Read More…..

Penn Team Restores Memory Formation Following Sleep Deprivation in Mice Read More….

Seeing Cell to Cell Differences for First Time Explains Symptoms of Rare Genetic Disorders, Finds Penn Study Read More…..

Penn Epigenetics Seminar Thursday, February 11, 2016 @ 4PM Room 9-146 Smilow Center for Translational Research Building Epigenetics Seminar 3.10.16

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Benjamin Garcia, winner of the 2016 Protein Science Young Investigator Award! http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2016/03/garcia/ BALTIMORE, MD – The Protein Society, the premiere international society dedicated to…

Penn Study Identifies Enzyme Key to Link Between Age-Related Inflammation and Cancer Read More…

Penn Epigenetics Seminar Thursday, February 11, 2016 @ 4PM Room 9-146 Smilow Center for Translational Research Building Epigenetics Seminar 2.11.16

Penn-Led Team Reprograms Social Behavior in Carpenter Ants Using Epigenetic Drugs Discovery of malleable epigenetic processes in ant brains has implications for the study of human behavior and disease Read…

Carpenter Ants, with Dr. Shelley Berger

Is This How Ant-Man Controls His Ants? Read More….

On the Trail of a Cancer Predisposition Syndrome Read More…..

Four Penn Professors Among Class of 2015 AAAS Fellows Read More….

Joint Epigenetics Program and Bioengineering Program Seminar Thursday, December 10, 2015 @ 4PM BRB Main Auditorium Epigenetics Seminar flyer 12.10.15

AFCRI/Hem-Onc Seminar Peter Adams, PhD December 10th, 2015 at 12pm Adams_AFCRI seminar flier 12.10.15

NIH New Innovator Award Goes to Penn Bioengineer for Study of ‘3-D Epigenome’ Read More…

Autophagy Works in Cell Nucleus to Guard Against Start of Cancer, Finds Penn Study Read More…..

Plant Hormone ‘Switch’ Unravels Chromatin to Form Flowers, Penn Biologists Find Read More…

NIH New Innovator Award Goes to Penn Bioengineer for Study of ‘3-D Epigenome’ Read More…..

Epigenetics of Cell Fate Symposium January 13, 2016 Smilow Center for Translational Research Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Epigenetics of Cell Fate Agenda  

2015-2016 Distinguished Seminar Series

2015-2016 Epigenetics Seminar Series

Gerd Blobel, Jennifer Phillips-Cremins and Arjun Raj win collaborative U01 funding through the NIH’s 4D Nucleome Common Fund Initiative.

PIK Professor Shelley Berger is the founder and director of Penn’s Epigenetics Program, a leader in revolutionizing our understanding of genetic information. Read More…

Mutation in Well-studied p53 Tumor Suppressor Protein Uses Epigenetic Pathways to Drive Aggressive Cancer Growth Read More….

Team Decodes Structure of Protein Complex Active in DNA Repair Read More…..

Benjamin Garcia, the Presidential Professor and director of quantitative proteomics in the epigenetics program, department of biochemistry and biophysics, Smilow Center for Translational Research at the Perelman School of Medicine,…

  Penn Researchers who received More Than $1 Million from Kaufman Foundation Awards Read More…

Cancer: Mutant p53 and chromatin regulation Read More….  

Mutation in Well-studied p53 Tumor Suppressor Protein Uses Epigenetic Pathways to Drive Aggressive Cancer Growth Read More….

Single Mammalian Cells Compensate for Differences in Cellular Volume and DNA Copy Number through Independent Global Transcriptional Mechanisms Read More…..  

Aging-Dependent Demethylation of Regulatory Elements Correlates with Chromatin State and Improved β Cell Function Read More….

Cell Aging Slowed by Putting Brakes on Noisy Transcription Read More….  

More Information Coming Soon…

Penn Researchers Show How Cells Solve Biochemical Challenges as They Get Bigger Read More…

Joint Epigenetics Program and Bioengineering Seminar Friday, June 5, 2015 at 12:00pm BRB Auditorium

Dr. Ivona Percec’s study shows new technique holds beneficial results for facial paralysis and cosmetic patients. Read More…

Penn Epigenetics Seminar Tuesday, May 26, 2015 at 12:00pm Rubenstein Auditorium Smilow Center for Translational Research Building

CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY CDB Seminars are held in the BRB Auditorium at 12:15pm unless noted otherwise DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND BIOPHYSICS Seminars are held in the CRB Austrian Auditorium…

Penn Team Finds Protein “Cement” that Stabilizes the Crossroad of Chromosomes Read More… Watch Video: http://bcove.me/rutbi3em

Roberto Bonasio, Ph.D. named a 2015 Searle Scholar Read More…

Penn Study Describes First Steps in Basic Biological Process that Could be Harnessed to Make Therapeutic Cells Read More…

Join us in Congratulating Jennifer Phillips-Cremins, who was named a 2015 Sloan Fellow! Read More…

Please join us in congratulating Ben Garcia, Ph.D., who was awarded the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society SCHOLAR Award!

Please welcome our new epigenetics co-directors Marisa Bartolomei, Ph.D. Co-Director, Epigenetics Program Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Gerd Blobel, M.D., Ph.D. Co-Director, Epigenetics Program Frank E. Weise III Professor…

WHYY – Brainy or brawny? For ants, it comes down to more than DNA Read and listen to interview here…

Females remain significantly underrepresented in scientific research internationally, but Penn, with support from the highest levels, is making progress in gender equity. Read more…

Circadian Enhancers Coordinate Multiple Phases of Rhythmic Gene Transcription In Vivo. Read More…

Dr. Ted Abel is part of the Penn-led Team Preventing Memory Problems Caused by Sleep Deprivation. Read More…

Dr. Jennifer E. Phillips-Cremins awarded the New York Stem Cell Foundation – Robertson Investigator Award. Read More…

Interchromosomal Homology Searches Drive Directional ALT Telomere Movement and Synapsis. Read More…

Penn Researchers Explain How Ends of Chromosomes are Maintained for Cancer Cell Immortality. Read More…

Highlighted in The EMBO Journal: Dynamics of genomic H3K27me3 domains and role of EZH2 during pancreatic endocrine specification. Read More… Click to read Dynamics of genomic H3K27me3 Click to read…

Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award to Dr. Gerd A. Blobel of the Dept., of Pediatrics at CHOP of Philadelphia. Read More…

Please join us for an afternoon “Celebrating Women in Science” We invite you to register using the link below. Registration: https://penncdb.wufoo.com/forms/women-in-science-symposium-registration/

Dr. Arjun Raj Receives NSF CAREER Award Read More…

Read more about the New Penn Integrates Knowledge Website here.

Dr. Gerd Blobel speaks on WHYY about CHOP researchers progress on sickle cell disease treatment. Listen here…

Dr. Kenneth Zaret Named Director of the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Read More…

EPIC Symposium The Symposium on the Epigenetic Regulation of Organismal Function and Response to the Environment This Symposium will be held on Tuesday, May 20th, 2014 in the Rubenstein Auditorium in the Smilow Center…

Roberto Bonasio, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Jennifer E. Phillips-Cremins, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Bioengineering Ronen Marmorstein, Ph.D. Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics Investigator, Abramson Family Cancer…

The PENN SYMPOSIUM IN EPIGENETICS AND CANCER will be held Tuesday, January 14th, 2014, from 8:30AM – 4:00PM in the Rubenstein Auditorium in the Smilow Center for Translational Research Building.

January 9th, 2014 – 9-14 6 Smilow Center – Epigenetics Meeting Chris Vakoc, M.D., Ph.D., – Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Role of chromatin regulators in leukemia maintenance” Samantha Falk, –…

December 5th, 2013- 11-14 6 Smilow Center – Epigenetics Meeting Hua-Ying Fan, Ph.D., – University of Pennsylvania The Sequence-Specific Transcription Factor c-Jun Targets Cockayne Syndrome Protein B to Regulate Transcription…

November 7th, 2013- Rubenstein Auditorium – Epigenetics Meeting Michael Lampson, Ph.D., – University of Pennsylvania Violation of Mendel’s First Law: biased chromosome segregation in meiosis Nam Woo Cho, Ph.D., –…

Epigenetics of Cellular Memory Symposium February 5, 2013 Smilow Center Auditorium and Lobby Email: JVicario@mail.med.upenn.edu to register

May 2, 2011 – Epigenetics and Aging Symposium Schedule of the event can be found here.

November 11, 2010 (BRB Auditorium) – Epigenetics Meeting Steve Reiner, Ph.D. (Penn SOM – Infectious Diseases) Parsing Epigenetic information during cellular diversification and self-renewal Sharmistha Pal, Ph.D. (The Wistar Institute…

October 13, 2010 – Room BRB Auditorium Epigenetics and IRM Symposium BRB Auditorium

Thursday, September 16, 2010 (Stanley Dunlop Auditorium in Stemmler Hall) – Epigenetics Meeting Roger Gregory, Ph.D. (Cancer Biology) Roles of ubiquitin on chromatin surrounding DNA double strand breaks Alexei Tulin,…

Thursday, June 10, 2010 (BRB II/III 251) – Epigenetics Meeting Nahid Turan, Ph.D. (Temple University) Inter-and intra-individual variation in allele-specific DNA methylation and gene expression in children conceived using Assisted…

Fox Chase Cancer Center John T. Lis, Ph.D. (5/27/10) Cornell University “New Views of Local and Genome-wide Transcription Regulation in Vivo” 12:15 p.m., Reimann Auditorium

Thursday, May 13, 2010 (BRB II/III 251) – Epigenetics Meeting Ted Abel, Ph.D. (Department of Biology) Epigenetic Mechanisms of Memory Storage Greg Dunn (Bale Lab) Maternal High Fat Diet in…

Genetics Richard H. Goodman, M.D., Ph.D. (5/3/10) Oregon Health & Science University 12:15 p.m., BRB II/III Auditorium

Cell and Developmental Biology Margaret (Minx) Fuller, Ph.D. (4/28/10) Stanford School of Medicine Time TBD, BRB II/III Auditorium

CRRWH Dale Dorsett, Ph.D. (4/21/10) Saint Louis University School of Medicine 12:00, 253 BRB II/III

Thursday, April 8, 2010 (BRB II/III 251) – Epigenetics Meeting Alex Mazo, Ph.D. (Thomas Jefferson University) Ecdysone- and NO-mediated transcriptional regulation by competing nuclear receptors Xuan Pan, Ph.D. (Atchison Lab)…