Author Archives: Jonathon Cornett

Dr. Yun Li (Professor, Genetics, Biostatistics and Computer Science) has received a new R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) for her proposal titled “Study of selective cell and system vulnerability in Alzheimer’s disease”. 

Dr. Hyejung Won (Assistant Professor, Genetics) received a three-year grant from the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative 2022 Program:  Genomics of ASD: Pathways to Biological Convergence and Genetic Therapies.

Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 10 papers during March 26th – April 8th, 2023.

Jeff Sekelsky, PhD (Professor of Biology and Genetics) has been awarded the 2023 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Student and Academic Program Support from the UNC Graduate School. 

Shezhad Sheikh, MD, PhD (Associate Professor, Medicine and Genetics) and Terry Furey, PhD (Professor, Genetics and Biology) received a new R01 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) for their project titled “High throughput functional studies of IBD-associated GWAS variants”.

Jason Stein, PhD (Associate Professor, Genetics and Neuroscience Center) has been awarded a new R01 grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) for his project titled “IBIS-iPSC: Organoid remodeling of cortical surface area hyperexpansion in autism spectrum disorder”.

The National Cancer Institute has awarded UNC Lineberger’s Shelley Earp, MD, and Yuliya Pylayeva-Gupta, PhD, a five-year, $2.69 million R01 research project grant to investigate approaches to overcome barriers to pancreatic cancer immunotherapies. Their objective is to understand resistance to modern immunotherapy and to design more effective combination therapies.

On March 24, the department hosted a group of eight students who participate in the WTCC STEM Academic and Research Training (START) Program. 

Keriayn Smith, PhD, receives $665,786 over the course of four years to research non-coding RNA in yeast, mammalian cells, and more.

Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 8 papers during March 12th – 25th, 2023. Schizophrenia risk conferred by rare protein-truncating variants is conserved across diverse human populations.  Liu D, Meyer D, Fennessy B, Feng C, Cheng E, Johnson JS, Park YJ, Rieder MK, Ascolillo S, de Pins A,...