Checkout our new preprints on human craniofacial transcriptomics and the discovery of a global control region for the HOXA gene cluster. New resources are available on our data pages and at the UCSC genome browser.
Author: jcotney
Tara Yankee awarded James Taylor Foundation Scholarship
Graduate student Tara Yankee was selected as an inaugural recipient of a James Taylor Foundation scholarship. She was one of 10 students sponsored to attend the 2021 CSHL Genome Informatics meeting where she presented her work on human craniofacial gene expression dynamics.
Postdoc Kevin Child and Graduate Student Andrea Wilderman Finalists for 2021 Charles J. Epstein Trainee Awards
Kevin Child, PhD and Andrea Wilderman, both from the lab of Dr. Justin Cotney, were selected as finalists for the 2021 Charles J. Epstein Trainee Awards for Excellence in Human Genetics Research for the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), to be held virtually October 18-22. Dr. Child and Ms. Wilderman were selected from over 500 applicants and have been invited to give presentations on their work during the ASHG virtual meeting. Dr. Child’s research focuses on the role of alternative splicing in heart development. He will discuss his current work using Nanopore long-read sequencing to confirm the presence of novel splice variants in the human embryonic heart. Ms. Wilderman’s research centers on the use of multiple sequencing-based technologies to identify tissue-specific regulatory regions and the genes they target. Her presentation will summarize her PhD thesis research using mice to characterize a novel craniofacial superenhancer region which regulates the expression of HoxA genes and affects palate development. Finalists for the award receive complimentary registration for the conference as well as $1000. Six awardees will receive an additional $1000 and will be announced at the ASHG Meeting in October.
Congratulations Kevin and Andrea!
Nagham Khouri Farah awarded NRSA
Congratulations to Nagham who was recently awarded an F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship! She will study the role of Foxp transcription factors in cerebellar development and be jointly advised by Drs. James Li and Justin Cotney.
Emma Wentworth Winchester receives F30 award
UConn Researcher Identifies Genetic Elements Involved in Heart Development
Coverage of our latest work in the developing heart in UConn Today:
UConn Researcher Identifies Genetic Elements Involved in Heart Development
Congrats Emma!
Emma successfully completed her qualifying exam and is now officially a DMD/PhD Candidate at UConn Health. Emma also got married this summer. Double congrats and hope to celebrate in person soon!
New Paper out in Circulation Research
The Cotney lab, lead by Dr. Jennifer VanOudenhove and graduate student Tara Yankee, published a paper in Circulation Research describing chromatin and gene expression dynamics during human heart organogenesis. Check out our data on our website, our track hub on the UCSC Genome Browser, and read the paper at Circulation Research. Congrats all!
Congrats Nagham!
Nagham successfully completed here qualifying exam and is no officially a PhD Candidate in the Genetics and Developmental Biology AoC at UConn Health. Great job Nagham!
News coverage of R01 in UConn Today
https://today.uconn.edu/school-stories/craniofacial-birth-defects-regulation-not-genes/