Mentor Areas
I am interested harnessing genetic insights to increase blood cells production and support clinical testing and transfusions. I've used computational modeling, genome-edited iPSC culture models, and mouse knockout models to identify and test novel factors that promote blood cell formation.
Description:
We are interested in increasing production of blood cells in vitro for clinical translational use. Our recent work employed machine learning algorithms to identify novel blood trait-regulatory sites from human GWAS data, including SNPs in the TPM1 gene locus. People with this polymorphism express less TPM1 and have higher platelet counts. We used genome-edited iPSC models to confirm that TPM1 normally constrains in vitro hematopoiesis. Ongoing work aims to define mechanisms responsible for this effect.
Students could be involved in computational or cell/molecular biology work. Ongoing computational work could involve training machine learning algorithms to recognize blood trait-specific epigenetic signals and regulatory genomic loci. We are also developing a murine model to establish effects of TPM1 deficiency in vivo. Related work would involve genotyping, cell culture and molecular biology techniques.
Preferred Qualifications
For computational projects, some familiarity with R and/or python would be important.
For murine and cell biology work, comfort working with mouse samples is all that would be required.
Project Website
Learn more about the researcher and/or the project here. Thom Lab
Details:
Preferred Student Year
First-year, Second-Year, Junior, Senior
Academic Term
Fall, Spring, Summer
I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).Volunteer
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.