Department of Genetics Publications for June 2026

August 11, 2026

Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 22 papers in June 2026.

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Haendel and Thaxton Secure New U24 Grant from NHGRI

August 10, 2026

Drs. Melissa Haendel (Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor, Genetics) and Courtney Thaxton (Associate Professor, Genetics) received a new U24 award from the National Human Genome Research Institute for their project titled “Mondo: A community consensus knowledgeable for computational disease definitions”.  

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Halvorsen Awarded New R21 Grant from NIMH

August 10, 2026

Dr. Matt Halvorsen (Assistant Professor, Genetics) received a new R21 award from the National Institutes of Mental Health for his project titled “Identifying precise brain regions and cell types associated with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and related diagnoses using genomics”.

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Smith Promoted to Associate Professor

July 31, 2026

Dr. Greg Smith has been promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics, based on excellence in research.

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Hurwitz Secures NSF I-Corps Award

July 31, 2026

Dr. Eric Hurwitz (Assistant Professor, Genetics) received a new NSF award (Dr. Melissa Haendel, PI) for his project titled “I-Corps: Translation potential of machine learning algorithms for early postpartum depression detection”.

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Welcome New Faculty in Genetics

July 31, 2026

Dr. Jieun Esther Park and Dr. Eric Hurwitz were appointed as Assistant Professors in the Department of Genetics, effective July 2026.  

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Pardo-Manuel de Villena Awarded R21 Grant from NIH

July 28, 2026

Dr. Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena (Professor and Chair, Department of Genetics) was awarded a new R21 grant from the NIH Office of the Director for his project titled “Addressing the impact of ERVs in genome replicability of mouse resources:  CC015 as a proof of principle”.

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Haendel Secures R24 Grant Focused on New Approach Methodologies   

July 24, 2026

Dr. Melissa Haendel (Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor, Genetics) was awarded a new R24 grant from the NIH Office of the Director for her project titled “An AI-powered informatics resource for accelerating New Approach Methodologies research”.  

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Sullivan Receives Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) Grant from NIMH

July 15, 2026

Dr. Patrick Sullivan (Distinguished Professor of Genetics and Psychiatry) was awarded an R01 from the National Institutes of Mental Health to continue funding of the PGC.  

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Department of Genetics Publications for May 2026

July 1, 2026

Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 28 papers in May 2026.

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