PGFI co-Directors Jim Eberwine, Elmer Holmes Bobst Professor of Pharmacology, and Junhyong Kim, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor of Biology, received $2 million/year for five years from NIH's Single Cell Analysis Program to lead a project that will characterize mRNA in neurons and heart cells. Using novel technologies that allow for capturing and manipulating all of the mRNA in a single cell, this project will shed light on why individual cells of the same type often behave very differently (read more).
Mark Your Calendar
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Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - 15:00
Barbara Wold, PhD
Caltech
The next frontier in the genome sciences will be developing technology that captures novel quantitative biological measurements ... more about genomics
PGFI News and In the Press
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Understanding transcriptome variability of excitable cells
Gustavo Aguirre, Shelly Berger and Nancy Bonini were honored with election to the National Academies Institute of Medicine on Oct. 15, 2012. New IOM members are chosen for their outstanding contributions to the medical sciences, health care, and public health.
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations awarded PGFI a grant to support a 4-year project to bring genomics to high school classrooms. The project will design a genomics curriculum, host teacher-training workshops, and provide support for classroom implementation, including access to an equipment loaner program.
PGFI Members receive McKnight Technology Award
Jim Eberwine (PGFI Co-Director, Elmer Holmes Bobst Prof of Pharmacology) and Ivan Dmochowski (PGFI member, Assoc Prof of Chemistry) were awarded a Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award by the McKnight Foundation to pursue their novel systems-level approach for isolating RNA from live cells. This Transcriptome In Vivo Analysis tag (TIVA-tag) methodology will enable quantification of genomics processes in natural cellular contexts.
PGFI members elected to National Academy of SciencesNancy Bonini’s contributions to understanding the molecular mechanisms of human neurodegenerative diseases and Gideon Dreyfuss' research on RNA-binding proteins and their role in degenerative diseases were recognized by the National Academy of Sciences with their election to NAS membership in May 2012. Dr. Bonini is Lucille B. Williams Professor of Biology in the School of Arts and Sciences and Dr. Dreyfuss is Isaac Norris Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.
PGFI me
mber joins Royal Society
Garret FitzGerald, chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, is among the 44 newly elected Fellows and eight newly elected Foreign Members to the Royal Society.
PGFI Ass
ociate Director elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Thomas Curran, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, PI at Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute and deputy scientific director at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, was one of five professors from Penn to be elected to the 2012 class of members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and of the Royal Society.
What role do genes play in height? PGFI member Sarah Tishkoff's findings from a population of pygmies in Cameroon are highlighted in multiple news outlets, including Scientific American. Jarvis et al. (2012) PLoS Genet 8(4).
Dr. Jean Bennett's work demonstrating the safety and efficacy of gene therapy in both eyes for patients with Leber congenital amaurosis was featured on BBC. This research was just published in Bennett et al. (2012) AAV2 gene therapy readministration in three adults with congenital blindness. Sci. Transl. Med. 4, 120ra15. Dr. Bennett oversees the PGFI Center for Translational and Personalized Genomics of Inherited Retinal Degenerations, a research initiative started in 2010.
New Approaches for Understanding Aging Neurons Selected for SupportDr. Jim Eberwine, Elmer Holmes Bobst Professor of Pharmacology and Co-Director of PGFI, has been awarded a 2011 Senior Scholar Award in Aging from The Ellison Medical Foundation for his proposal, “Systems Analysis of Dendritic mRNA Abundances and Translation during Aging.” This award of $960,000 (total costs) over four years will enable the characterization of mRNAs that are targeted to selected neuronal dendrites and subregions of dendrites during aging followed by the subsequent analysis of their co-translational dynamics. The studies require new technology development and novel algorithmic approaches to assess real-time, multi-mRNA translational functional genomics processes.
Former PGFI Director profiled in Nature Biotechnology
PGFI members among Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholars in Aging for 2010
High-Throughput Sequencing Facility
PGFI Establishes New Translational and Personalized Genomics Centers
Guggenheim Fellowship Awarded to Dr. Kim