10th Annual Gail Gasser Lecture
By Eileen McCann
The Department of Genetics and the Institute on Aging are pleased to present the 10th Anniversary Gail Gasser Lecture and Symposium on Monday, September 14, 2026, at 12:00 PM in the Gaulton Auditorium, Kelley Research Building.
This year's keynote speaker is Sonja W. Scholz, MD, PhD, FAAN, FANA, Senior Investigator and Chief of the Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Scholz is an internationally recognized leader in the genetics of neurodegenerative disease and will deliver a lecture titled**"Uncovering Hidden Genetic Risk in Synucleinopathies."
The symposium will also…
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New Publication from Glennis Logsdon, PhD
By Eileen McCann
A recent Nature study from the Logsdon lab provides the most comprehensive view to date of human centromere diversity and evolution by resolving and characterizing 2,110 centromeres from 65 individuals representing 28 global population groups. The study revealed extensive variation in centromere sequence, structure, and epigenetic organization, identifying 226 major centromere haplotypes and 1,870 α-satellite repeat variants. Kinetochore position was strongly associated with the underlying centromere sequence and structure, suggesting that genetic variation helps shape centromere chromatin organization. By extending these analyses to thousands of additional centromeres and a multigenerational family, the researchers further showed that centromeres evolve remarkably rapidly,…
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New publication from Bogdan Pasaniuc
By Eileen McCann
In one of the largest admixture mapping study to date in African-European admixed individuals, researchers analyzed genetic and health data from nearly 49,000 participants in the NIH All of Us Research Program and Penn Medicine Biobank, identifying 71 ancestry-trait associations across 22 health-related traits. The study found little evidence of selection shaping genetic architecture of human traits since admixture while uncovering genetic associations that may be missed by traditional genome-wide association studies.
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New Publication from Golnaz Vahedi, PhD
By Eileen McCann
Researchers from Penn Genetics and their collaborators have shown how immune cells physically reorganize their genome to commit to a specialized fate. Naïve CD4⁺ T cells interpret cytokine cues to become helper T cells, a decision that requires reshaping how DNA folds inside the nucleus. Using single-allele chromatin tracing, a super-resolution imaging approach that follows individual chromatin fibers one cell at a time, the team studied the disease-associated Ets1–Fli1 locus. They found that cytokine signaling repositions a super-enhancer toward the geometric center of the folded locus, where it simultaneously engages the Ets1 and Fli1 genes and sustains the expression that…
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New Publication from Dong Li, PhD
By Eileen McCann
Researchers from Penn Genetics and an international team of collaborators have identified DMAP1 as a new gene responsible for a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder. Studying 20 patients from 16 families worldwide, the team found that biallelic variants in DMAP1, a protein involved in DNA methylation and chromatin remodeling, cause developmental delay, intellectual disability, seizures, hypotonia, and distinctive facial features. Using fruit flies to model the human variants, the researchers showed that DMAP1 is essential for brain development and identified two downstream target genes, Cbl and SF1, that may offer future therapeutic targets. The team also developed a DNA methylation "fingerprint" (episignature)…
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