The Genetics and Epigenetics Program (G&E) was established in 2017. Many of its faculty and students were formerly in three different GSBS programs, which were phased-out in 2017: Epigenetics & Molecular Carcinogenesis (EMC), Genes & Development (G&D), and Human Molecular Genetics (HMG). In 2017, the students in these three programs elected to be “unofficially affiliated” with the G&E program and are therefore listed here.
2021 Graduates
Amelie Albrecht, PhD (Advisor: Xuetong Shen, PhD) - EMC
PhD Thesis: “The functional analysis of a major tyrosine phosphorylation site on actin”
Position after graduation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Fan Liu, PhD,Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP), Berlin, Germany
Erin Atkinson, PhD (Advisor: Bin Wang, PhD) - G&E
PhD Thesis: “NPSD4: A new player in the DNA damage response”
Position after graduation: Genetic Counseling Program student, MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX
Ruth Barros De Paula, MS (Advisor: John Tainer, PhD) - G&E
MS Thesis: “Unveiling global roles of G-quadruplexes and G4-22 in human genetics”
Position after graduation: PhD Student, Baylor College of Medicine PhD Program, Houston, TX
Alexandria Blackburn, PhD (Advisor: Rachel Miller, PhD) - G&E
PhD Thesis: “A novel role for DYRK1A in kidney development”
Position after graduation: Clinical Research Program Coordinator, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, MD Anderson, Houston, TX
Jianji Chen, PhD (Advisor: Mark Bedford, PhD) - EMC
PhD Thesis: “Discovery of novel ubiquitin- and methylation-dependent interactions using protein domain microarrays”
Position after graduation: Sr. Biomarker Discovery Scientist, IDEXX, Westbrook, ME
Ahmed Emam, MS (Advisor: Bin Wang, PhD) - G&E
MS Thesis: “Investigating the role of Abro1 in DNA damage-induced immune response”
Position after graduation: PhD Student, MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX
I-Lin Ho, PhD (Advisors: Giulio Draetta, MD,PhD and Andrea Viale, MD) - G&D
PhD Thesis: “Epithelial memory of resolved inflammation limits tissue damage while promoting pancreatic tumorigenesis”
Position after graduation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Andrea Viale, MD, MD Anderson, Houston, TX
Zian Liao, MS (Advisor: Wenbo Li, PhD) - G&E
MS Thesis: Manipulating enhancer RNA activity to study their roles in gene regulation and cancer”
Position after graduation: PhD Student, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Lorena Maili, PhD (Advisor: Jacqueline Hecht, PhD) - HMG
PhD Thesis: “Genetic pathway analysis of abnormal facial development in nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate”
Position after graduation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Jacqueline Hecht, PhD, McGovern Medical School, Uthealth, Houston, TX
Shucheng (Anna) Miao, MS (Advisors: Michelle Barton, PhD and Gigi Lozano, PhD) - G&E
MS Thesis: “TRIM24 promotes mammary tumor development by upregulating metabolic reducing power”
Position after graduation: PhD Student, MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX
Odemaris Narváez del Pilar, PhD (Advisor: Jichao Chen, PhD)- G&E
PhD Thesis: “Regulation of lung mesenchymal cells by epithelial Wnt ligands”
Position after graduation: Current Position: Completing medical school in Puerto Rico
Phuoc Nyguen, MS (Advisor: Wenbo Li, PhD) - G&E
MS Thesis: TBA
Position after graduation: PhD Student, MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX
Melinda Soeung, PhD (Advisors: Giulio Draetta, MD,PhD and Giannicola Genovese, MD,PhD) - G&D
PhD Thesis: “Understanding the pathogenesis of renal medullary carcinoma”
Position after graduation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Giulio Draetta, MD,PhD, MD Anderson, Houston, TX
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2020 Graduates
Alem Belachew, PhD (Advisor: Michelle Hildebrandt, PhD) - G&E
PhD Thesis:“Understanding the genetic and clinical determinants of racial/ethnic differences in multiple myeloma (MM) susceptibility and outcomes with a focus on Hispanics”
Position after graduation: Director of Client Engagement, saleSEER, Inc., Houston, TX
Vanja Krneta-Stankic, PhD (Advisor: Rachel Miller, PhD) - G&D
PhD Thesis: “The role of the Wnt/PCP Formin Daam1 in kidney development”
Position after graduation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Jichao Chen, PhD, MD Anderson, Houston, TX
Danielle Little, PhD (Advisor: Jichao Chen, PhD) - G&D
PhD Thesis: “The lung lineage transcription factor NKX2-1 regulates opposing cell fates in vivo”
Position after graduation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Michael Dyer, PhD, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN
Sara Martin, PhD (Advisor: Richard Wood, PhD) - EMC
PhD Thesis: “A disruption of DNA polymerase ζ promotes an innate immune response”
Position after graduation: Postdoctoral fellow, Lab of Mitch McVey, PhD, Tufts University, Boston, MA
Sydney Moyer, PhD (Advisor: Guillermina Lozano, PhD) - G&D
PhD Thesis: “p53 drives a transcriptional program that elicits a non-cell-autonomous response and alters cell state in vivo”
Position after graduation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of William Hahn, MD,PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
Johnathon Rose, PhD (Advisor: Giulio Draetta, MD, PhD) - G&D
PhD Thesis: “A context-forward in vivo functional genomics platform for target discovery and establishing vulnerability-context in pancreatic cancer”
Position after graduation: Postdoctoral Fellow, IACS (Traction Group), MD Anderson, Houston, TX
Chieh-Yuan (Alex) Li, PhD (Giulio Draetta, MD,PhD) - G&D
PhD Thesis: "Longitudinal clonal lineage dynamics and functional characterization of chemoresistance and metastasization in pancreatic cancer"
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Jintan Liu, PhD (Giulio Draetta MD,PhD - G&D
PhD Thesis: "Pooled functional genomics screening with multiplexed Cpf1 library"
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Amber Thomas-Gordon, MS (Jan Parker-Thornburg, PhD - G&E
PhD Thesis: "Artificial intron technology to generate conditional knock-out mice"
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2019 Graduates
Scott Casey, MS (Ellen Richie, PhD) - EMC
MS Thesis: "Determination of thymic epithelial composition and proliferation during the perinatal to adult transition"
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Kevin Farquhar, PhD (Gabor Balazsi, PhD) - G&D
PhD Thesis: "The role of gene expression noise in mammalian cell survival"
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Aimee Farria, PhD (Sharon Dent, PhD) - EMC
PhD Thesis: "GCN5 loss impacts MYC-driven cancer in mice and human cells"
LInkedin Page
Rhea Kang, PhD (Francesca Cole, PhD) - EMC
PhD Thesis: "Higher order chromosome organization and recombination dynamics of meiotic prophase I in mouse spermatocytes"
Linked Page
Roxsan Manshouri, PhD ( Don Gibbons, MD,Ph) - G&D
PhD Thesis: "Uncovering the ZEB1 interactome to identify novel regulators of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer"
Linked Page
Kenneth Trimmer, PhD (Swathi Arur, PhD) - G&D
PhD Thesis: "Plasticity of C. elegans germline stem cells under nutritional and metabolic stress"
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow, lab of Swathi Arur, PhD, MD Anderson
Sarah Wu, MD, PhD (Elsa Flores, PhD) - G&D
PhD Thesis: "Investigating the role of the p63 isoform DeltaNP63 in lung stem cell populations and lung cancer"
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Ruoji Zhou, PhD (DDung-Fan Lee, PhD) - HMG
PhD Thesis: "Modeling cancer using Li-Fraumeni syndrome patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells"
LinkedIn page
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2018 Graduates
2018 Graduates (additional info coming)
Neeraj Aryal, PhD (Dr. Guillermina Lozano, G&D)
Ngoc Bui, PhD (Dr. Elsa Flores, G&D)
Anna Casasent, PhD (Dr. Nicholas Navin, G&D)
Kyle Chang, PhD (Dr. Eduardo Vilar Sanchez, HMG)
Hsueh-Ping (Eva) Chao, PhD (Dr. Dean Tang, EMC)
Gita Dangol, PhD (Dr. Anirban Maitra, HMG)
Andrew Davis, PhD (Dr. Elsa Flores, G&D)
Aundrietta Duncan, PhD (Dr. Michelle Barton, G&D)
Sitaram Gayatri, PhD (Dr. Mark Bedford, EMC)
Charissa Kim, PhD (Dr. Nicholas Navin, G&D)
Uyen "Mimi" Le, PhD (Dr. Ann Killary, HMG)
Jeanne Pierzynski, PhD (Dr. Xifeng Wu, HMG)
Esmeralda Ramirez-Peña, PhD (Dr. Sendurai Mani, G&D)
Justin Shaw, MS (Dr. Margarida Albuquerque Almeida Santos, G&D)
Alejandro Villar-Prados, MD,PhD (Dr. Anil Sood, G&D)
Jaime Nicolas Veland, PhD (Dr. Taiping Chen, EMC)
Erin Williams, PhD (Dr. Andrew Gladden, G&D)
Justin Wong, PhD (Dr. Ralf Krahe, HMG)
Yongming Xue, PhD (Dr. Xiaobing Shi, G&D)
Ping Zhou, PhD (Dr. Dianna Milewicz, HMG)
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2017 Graduates
2017 Graduates (additional info coming)
Nancy Azizian, PhD (Dr. Craig Logsdon; G&D)
Pushan Dasgupta, MD,PhD (Dr. Giulio Draetta; G&D)
Connie Larsson, PhD (Dr. Guillermina Lozano; G&D)
Guadalupe “Javier” Ortiz, PhD (Dr. Guillermina Lozano; G&D)
Jeanne Pierzynski, PhD (Dr. Xifeng Wu; HMG)
Li Wang, PhD (Dr. Sharon Dent; EMC)