Author: e.gan

WashU Medicine Department of Genetics Celebrates 50 Years of Innovation in Genomics

The Department of Genetics at Washington University School of Medicine marked a significant milestone on April 24th, 2025 with its 50th Anniversary Symposium, held at the Eric P. Newman Education Center and Moore Auditorium. The event brought together past and present faculty, students, and postdoctoral researchers to celebrate the department’s rich history and its ongoing contributions to the field of genetics and genomics.​

Dr. Rob Mitra Inducted into the AIMBE College of Fellows

Rob Mitra

AIMBE Fellows represent the top 2% of medical and biological engineers. They include the most accomplished medical and biological engineers in academia, industry, education, clinical practice, and government. Congratulations to Dr. Rob Mitra for being inducted on March 31 in Arlington, Va. along with 169 other new fellows from across the United States.

Seven WashU faculty elected to AAAS (Links to an external site)

Seven faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis are among the 471 new fellows selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the most distinct honors in the scientific community. Congratulations to Dr. Tim Schedl on his election to AAAS.

Dr. Guoyan Zhao selected for the Hope Center Pilot Grant

Guoyan Zhao, PhD

Congratulations to Dr. Guoyan Zhao and co-investigator Dr. Hiroko Yano for being selected for the Hope Center Pilot Grant! The project “Identification and validation of drug candidates for repurposing in Huntington disease” will be funded in full $100,000 for the award period of January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2026!

Graduate student Emma Casey awarded NINDS Diversity Supplement

Emma Casey, a second year PhD student in the Jin lab has been awarded a highly competitive NINDS Diversity Supplement to work on characterizing and assessing the impact of mitochondrial DNA variations in congenital hydrocephalus. Emma is the first trainee from the Department of Genetics to receive the significant 3-year NIH grant award totaling $225K. Congratulations!

$14 million supports work to diversify human genome research (Links to an external site)

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has received two large grants renewing funding for the Human Pangenome Reference Sequencing Project. This ambitious program began in 2019 with the goal of increasing the diversity of human genome sequences that are pooled into the widely used reference genome. A thorough representation of human genetic diversity can help researchers discover how genetic variation contributes to disease and perhaps offer new routes to innovative treatments.

Researchers solve medical mystery of neurological symptoms in kids (Links to an external site)

A cross-disciplinary team of researchers and physicians from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and colleagues from around the world has solved the mystery of a child with a rare genetic illness that did not fit any known disease. The team found a link between the child’s neurological symptoms and a genetic change that affects how proteins are properly folded within cells, providing the parents with a molecular diagnosis and identifying an entirely new type of genetic disorder.