IHG Spring/Summer
 Newsletter 2023
Message from the Director:
Hi Everyone, 
 
It's hard to believe summer is fast approaching! I wanted to take the opportunity before we all start to head out on vacation to update you on several new and exciting ongoing efforts currently underway in IHG. 
 
The IHG 2023 Basic and Clinical Science Seed Grant Initiative is underway. This program's objective is to encourage new collaborative research projects focused on solving unmet needs in genetics/genomics with a preference for research projects that foster collaboration between basic scientists and clinicians. The committee received eight exciting proposals and is in the final stages of reviewing them to determine our awardees. An announcement will go out next week to those selected, and I look forward to sharing the proposed work selected for funding in our next newsletter. 
 
Another initiative we are excited to update you about is the IHG faculty recruitment that will reopen this Fall. Applicants with varied backgrounds in genetics and genomics will be considered, including those with expertise and interest in disease diagnosis and therapeutics, functional genomics, statistical genetics, and human population genetics. Thank you in advance to Ryan Hernandez  and Yin Shen for all their efforts around co-directing this search. 
 
For our community members located at Parnassus, we are happy to announce construction plans are underway to renovate the 9th floor of Health Sciences East (HSE), including the kitchen and shared office space. We hope to finalize this renovation by early 2024. We will be sending announcements in advance for any work that might impact occupants in the space. 
 
This summer, we are partnering with San Francisco State University (SFSU) on an exciting new training opportunity entitled CIRM COMPASS. This program will bring undergraduate students from SFSU to train for two years in IHG labs. If you are interested in hosting an undergraduate student, please be sure to let us know so we can assist with the arrangement. 
 
I am excited to welcome our newest IHG faculty members to the community Claire Clelland, PhD, MD, Kyle Cromer, PhD, Arnold Kriegstein, MD, PhD, Jingjing Li, PhD, Marisa Medina, PhD, Alex Pollen, PhD, Bethan Powell, MD, Vijay Ramani, PhD, and Catherine Tcheandjieu, DVM, PhD. We are excited to hear all about their successes in the coming years. 
 
I am also extremely excited about the recent graduation of our first Master of Science (MS) in Genetic Counseling class. I want to thank Cynthia Morgan, Allyson Scott, Julie Harris-Wai, and Jason Carmichael for all their amazing work in the program. 
 
I want to take a moment to thank our amazing Institute staff for all their efforts. Just to highlight a few, Aubrey and Khang have worked on revamping the IHG website. Suzanne has been a tremendous help to the genetic counseling program. David has been juggling multiple financial portfolios. Sharice continues to help us navigate the challenging HR landscape at UCSF, and Arnetha, our chief administrative officer, has continued to guide the operations of IHG so we can work to expand our impact as a hub for genetics and genomics research, technologies, industry partnerships, training, and education. 
 
Our IHG Seminar Series has had steady attendance. This Fall, we plan to have more trainee presentations and will hold the event monthly to increase in-person attendance. I want to thank Laurie Weiss and Elliott Sherr for their efforts in organizing this series, 
 
Additionally, building on the past success of the IHG Genotech Symposium last year, we are planning another all-day event this year in early October. The goal of the symposium is to foster collaboration and cross-fertilization between industry and academia in genetics and genomics. It is a terrific opportunity for us to accelerate the interest we are already receiving in IHG from the genetics, genomics, and technology industries. Make sure to mark your calendars once a date is set, an announcement will go out the second week in July with the final date and location, and we hope all members of the IHG community can attend. 
 
Also, a reminder that the Technology Seminar Series, in partnership with CoLabs and the Center for Advanced Technology (CAT), is pausing for the summer but will pick back up in the Fall. This seminar series takes place on both of our main campuses, on Parnassus 10-11 am and Mission Bay 1-2 pm, every second Tuesday of the month and brings numerous researchers to hear about the latest and greatest technologies in the field of genetics. I look forward to seeing you at a future event. 
 
Finally, as we enter the month of June, I want to wish everyone a happy PRIDE Month.

Wishing you all a great spring and a relaxing summer! 

All the best,

Nadav Ahituv
Faculty Profile: Katherine Hyland, PhD
Katherine Hyland, PhD, is bringing an understanding of genetics and genomics to both students and clinicians across UCSF.

Hyland, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and the UCSF Institute for Human Genetics, directs the medical genetics curriculum in the SOM and is chair of the IHG Education Committee.

“It is clear that genetics and genomics are transforming not only the science of medicine but also medical practice,” she said. “We realized that as we train this new cohort of physicians, we also need to educate practicing clinicians who are not yet up to speed with genetics and genomics.”

Hyland wants to ensure non-geneticist providers are empowered with resources to be more comfortable incorporating genetics and genomics into their practice, from ordering genetic tests and interpreting results to applying that information for patient care.

She led the IHG Education Committee in conducting a needs assessment of clinicians at UCSF to find out what they already know about genetics and genomics, what they would like to know more about, and the best way to share information with them.

The committee has identified “genetics and genomics champions” from several specialties who are not clinical geneticists but use genetics and genomics in their medical practice. These champions are now helping identify resources and how to best make them accessible to other busy clinicians for their specialties.

“We can't just train the new generation of clinicians,” Hyland said. “We really need to educate those that are practicing now as well.”
Researcher Profile: Apsara Ram, PhD
Apsara Ram trained as an undergraduate to become a veterinarian, but seeing the uncertainty and human suffering caused by the COVID-19 pandemic made her realize she wanted to generate medical knowledge for advancing human medicine.

With those goals in mind, she became a staff research associate in the lab of Dr. Edward Hsiao, MD, PhD, who is an assistant professor in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the UCSF Institute for Human Genetics. 

The Hsiao Lab uses the skeletal system as a basis for understanding how hormonal, genetic, and environmental factors drive human musculoskeletal development and disease. Ram works with stem cell models in the lab to study two musculoskeletal disorders: fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva and fibrous dysplasia. 

Though there are some drugs that have been shown to have an effect on fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, the molecular reasons for why or how these drugs have an effect remain unknown. Ram and the lab team are hoping to find those answers. 

“It is very rewarding when an experiment goes well and you gather good data,” Ram said. 

Ram plans to apply next year to medical school, with the goal of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. 
Staff Profile: Mark Kvale, PhD
Even though Mark Kvale received his doctorate in theoretical physics, he was soon drawn to the nascent and exciting field of quantitative biology.

He first came to UCSF to research computational neuroscience, then joined the newly formed UCSF Institute for Human Genetics in 2007 to research statistical genetics. Dr. Kvale is now Director of scientific programming at IHG specializing in computational and statistical genetics and genomics.

He has worked on a wide variety of projects, from statistical algorithm development and large-scale genetic testing to helping build the IHG and GML clinical exome and whole genome sequencing pipelines. More recently, he has been working on pharmacogenomic studies and developing machine learning algorithms to detect cancer from a simple blood test.

“One of the sources of joy and satisfaction in my tenure at the IHG has been working with a wonderful group of collaborators over the years,” Kvale said. “Colleagues have been very approachable, engaging, creative, and full of scientific integrity.”

A highlight of his work at IHG was the 2010 GERA project, or the Genetic Epidemiology Research on Adult Health and Aging.

“We genotyped 113,000 subjects,” Kvale said. “It was the largest such project ever executed at the time. We still use that same dataset to make new discoveries today.”
Meet Our New IHG Faculty Members
Assistant Professor of Neurology

Her current work centers on creating novel CRISPR gene therapies for genetic forms of dementia and ALS, utilizing patient iPSCs to model disease, advanced sequencing technologies and cutting-edge CRISPR technologies to develop first-in-class gene therapies for CNS disease. One of the pillars of her lab is the mentoring and advancement of trainees from underrepresented backgrounds to become the next generation of scientific leaders.  
Assistant Professor of Surgery & of Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences

The research interest of the Cromer Lab lies at the intersection of CRISPR-based genome editing and cell engineering. The mission of the lab is to close the gap between synthetic biology and the clinic, with special focus on hematopoietic stem cells and red blood cells.
Assistant Professor, Anatomic Pathology, Stuart Lindsay Endowed Professorship in Experimental Pathology

Dr. Devine is a practicing, board certified molecular pathologist and translational investigator in the Department of Pathology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is currently Medical Director of the Clinical Cancer Genomics Laboratory and Genomic Medicine Laboratory at UCSF where he uses genomic sequencing techniques to understand and diagnose rare inherited diseases and to molecularly profile tumors. His current research interests include understanding the genetic origins and vulnerabilities of gynecologic tumors and characterizing the genetics of vascular anomalies.
Professor of Neurology, Neurosciences Director, Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program

Founding Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF. Dr. Kriegstein’s research focuses on the way in which neural stem and progenitor cells in the embryonic brain produce neurons, and ways in which this information can be used for cell-based therapies to treat diseases of the nervous system. He is a co-founder of Neurona Therapeutics which is beginning a clinical trial using cell therapy to treat epilepsy.
Professor of Neurology, Neurosciences Director, Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program

Founding Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF. Dr. Kriegstein’s research focuses on the way in which neural stem and progenitor cells in the embryonic brain produce neurons, and ways in which this information can be used for cell-based therapies to treat diseases of the nervous system. He is a co-founder of Neurona Therapeutics which is beginning a clinical trial using cell therapy to treat epilepsy.
Associate Professor, Pediatrics

Dr. Medina’s research is aimed at elucidating mechanisms driving genetic control of cardiometabolic disease risk and response to treatment, in particular variation in the efficacy and adverse effects of statins. Current studies are focused on the use of patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from a cohort with comprehensive longitudinal electronic health record information to model genetic factors underlying the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and the diabetogenic effect of statins, a class of cholesterol lowering drugs.
Associate Professor, Neurology

The Pollen lab studies genetic, molecular, and cellular mechanisms underlying specializations of the human brain. Evolutionary changes involve tradeoffs and the unequal scaling of size, connectivity, and developmental tempo among brain regions and cell types during human evolution may confer vulnerabilities shared by all humans by placing cells in new contexts. Combining advances in single cell genomics and genome engineering with great ape cerebral organoid models of brain development to systematically connect human-specific mutations to evolved cellular specializations, vulnerabilities, and compensatory adaptations.tions.



Associate Professor, Pediatrics

Dr. Medina’s research is aimed at elucidating mechanisms driving genetic control of cardiometabolic disease risk and response to treatment, in particular variation in the efficacy and adverse effects of statins. Current studies are focused on the use of patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from a cohort with comprehensive longitudinal electronic health record information to model genetic factors underlying the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and the diabetogenic effect of statins, a class of cholesterol lowering drugs.
Assistant Investigator, Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology & Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Dr. Ramani’s research focuses on the mechanisms that control how genes are turned on or off in our cells. With his expertise in genomic technology development, single-cell sequencing, gene regulation, chromatin structure, dosage compensation, and RNA biology, a key research interest is the development of new high-throughput molecular techniques that make it possible to monitor gene activity at the level of single cells and single molecules. With these techniques, Ramani and his team study how changes in genome organization affect gene activity, or how the same gene may produce different RNA molecules under different conditions.

Assistant Investigator, GIDB, Gladstone Institute, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistic, The Bakar Computational Institute

Her expertise includes epidemiology, genomics, and statistics, which she applies to complex disorders such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. She specializes in mining large genomics and epidemiological datasets from diverse populations to discover genetic and environmental factors that predispose to disease and may differ between different ancestries. Tcheandjieu is a recipient of the Stanford Postdoc Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Champion Award, the Stanford Jump Start Award, and the Million Veteran Program early career investigator award.

Honors & Awards
In the News
P3EGS P3EGS
Noteworthy Publications
Events
Genomics is becoming an increasingly important part of patient care, but healthcare providers may not be aware of genomics education resources that are available. The National Human Genome Research Institute and its partners are organizing a social media campaign from June 5 to June 9, 2023, that focuses on healthcare provider genomics education. This initiative will include panel discussions, webinars, Twitter chats and Q&As.

Follow on Twitter: #MedGeneEd23 For more information click HERE
Early Bird Deadline: August 24
Abstracts Close: June 8
In Case You Missed It
UCSF COVID-19 Response Town Halls
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, UCSF has hosted regular virtual town halls to keep the UCSF community informed about the state of the pandemic, response efforts, and other important news for the UCSF community. Please see the archives to watch previous town halls.

As we approach the fourth year, we will include other important topics and will convene these forums once a month. Beginning Jan. 6, 2023, these town halls will be held every first Friday, from 4 to 5 p.m. Please mark your calendars for the 2023 town halls listed in the schedule below.

You can watch past recordings HERE
Open Recruitments
Join us on Social Media!
Contact Us
Do you have something exciting to share? Did we miss anything? Suggestions, comments or questions? If so, please contact us at Aubrey.Carstenson@ucsf.edu or Arnetha.Whitmore@ucsf.edu.

We are always looking to celebrate and share the amazing science that happens within the IHG community!