Author Archives: Jonathon Cornett

Dr. Melissa Haendel (Distinguished Professor, Genetics) is first author on a newly published paper in Science titled “Governing real-world health data as a public utility”.

Dr. Sam Wolff was promoted to Associate Professor, effective February 1, 2026.  

A geneticist at the UNC School of Medicine has coordinated the development of Mondo, the world’s first standardized rare disease coding tool. Mondo is designed to streamline the diagnosis and treatment planning for millions of patients with rare diseases internationally.

The laboratories of Jesse Raab and Katie Hoadley have published a new research article, “Hepatocyte-targeted Bap1 reduction in the liver primes an inflammatory transcriptional response,” in G3: Genes | Genomes | Genetics.

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Graduate Student Nina Nishiyama (Terry Furey and Shehzad Sheikh Labs) publishes “eQTL in diseased colon tissue identifies potential target genes associated with IBD” in Genetics.

The Department of Genetics is proud to highlight Dr. Christoph Rau for his excellence in research, mentorship, and service.

The UNC Department of Genetics achieved a milestone in 2025, becoming the top-ranked Genetics department in the nation for NIH-funded research.

Dr. Will Valdar (Professor, Genetics and Biostatistics), together with Paul Watkins (Pharmacy) and Chengwen Li (Pediatrics), was awarded a new R01 MPI grant from NIDDK for their project titled “Genetic determinants of AAV liver transduction and toxicity”.

Dr. Mark Heise (Professor, Genetics and M&I) was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology Class of 2026.

Dr. Sarah Schoenrock was promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics, effective January 1, 2026.