Genetics and G3 welcome new Senior and Associate Editors – Genes in the Genome

Joanna Maciel is a mathematical modeler and data scientist interested in fundamental questions in evolution. His theoretical work on the robustness and evolution of biological systems, and the evolution of molecular error rates, led him to more experimental applications of evolutionary theories from junk DNA to the de novo birth of genes. This has led to a research program, which has identified the sequence characteristics of ancient proteins, the nature of early life and the genetic code of the 20 amino acids. She also studies the population genetic consequences of unusually high rates of deleterious mutations carried by human-like species. Other interests include generalizing concepts of “fitness” to include phenomena such as dormancy, evolution, and density dependence. He is currently a professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.

Dan Bergsterl received his BS in Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics from the University of Maryland and his PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed postdoctoral training with Jeff Sikelski at UNC and then with Daniel St. Johnston at the University of Cambridge, where he was a Marshall Sherfield Fellow and a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow. Dean is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri. His lab uses Drosophila epithelium Tissues to study how cells adjust their mitotic spindles for proper division and research on epithelial cell reintegration have been initiated. This is the process by which misplaced cells return to their tissue layers. This work combines genetics, direct imaging, and computational modeling to understand epithelial tissue architecture. Dean has received NSF Career and NIH R01 funding for his research.

Julian Kitchen received his BS in Computer Science from Pennsylvania State University and his PhD in Computer and Information Science from the University of Oregon. Working under zebrafish biologist, John Postlethwaite, and bioinformatician, John Connery, Julian examined the effects of teleost-specific genome duplications on genome architecture. As a postdoctoral researcher, Julian moved to Bill Cresco’s lab, where he focused on freshwater migration in the Alaskan threespine stickleback. During this time, he also developed stacks for analyzing RAD sequence data for genetic mapping and population genetics. Julian joined the Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior faculty at the University of Illinois and is currently an Associate Professor. The Kitchen Lab uses computational techniques, including comparative and population genomics, and conserved synteny, to examine the evolution of genome architecture across different time scales, focusing primarily on notanioid and stickleback fishes.

Li-Lin Du is an investigator at the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing (NIBS). He received his BS from Nankai University, MS from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, and PhD from Yale University, where he worked on membrane trafficking in budding yeast. Saccharomyces cerevisiae Under the patronage of Peter Novick. He then received postdoctoral training in Paul Russell’s laboratory at the Scripps Research Institute, where he studied the DNA damage response in phage yeast. Schizosaccharomyces pombe. He became a Principal Investigator at NIBS in 2007. The DU lab studies essential genes, killer meiotic drivers, and genome evolution in fission yeast.

Guilherme da Silva Pereira studied biological sciences at the University Estadoil da Parabeba (UEPB), in Campina Grande, Brazil. He holds an MSc and PhD in Genetics and Plant Breeding from the Luz de Queiroz College of Agriculture/University of São Paulo (ISALC/USP), Parasiciba, Brazil. He has done postdoctoral research at North Carolina State University, and has taken a submedical at the University of Edinburgh. His lab focuses on developing and applying molecular, quantitative, and statistical genetics methods and tools to plant breeding, including but not limited to polyploid, clonally propagated crops such as potato, sweet potato, and sugarcane.

Atham Pai is an RNA systems geneticist working at the interface of RNA biology, functional genomics, and computational biology. Atha holds a BA in biochemistry and anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in human genetics from the University of Chicago. After completing a Jane Coffin-Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship at MIT, she joined the UMass Chen Medical School faculty in 2018 and is now an associate professor at the RNA Therapeutics Institute. His research focuses on understanding how RNA maturation steps are efficiently coordinated through the life cycle of an RNA molecule. To do this, her lab develops and applies high-throughput approaches to study the dynamics, fidelity, and coupling of transcription and RNA processing mechanisms. His work has been recognized with professional awards and grants such as the NIH Maximizing Investigators Research Award, the NSF Career Award, and the UMass Chen Early Career Achievement in Science and Health Award.

LEOs are trained in computer science and mathematics before a PhD in molecular biology, followed by postdoctoral work in high-throughput experimental genetics. He has contributed to methodological advances in gene expression genetics, established new efficient methods for investigating complex cellular and molecular traits in yeast, and developed some of the earliest deep learning methods for biological image analysis. In 2015, Leo joined the Sanger Institute faculty, and is currently a group leader in the new Regenerative Genomics Program. His team uses systematically engineered genetic mutations at scale in human cell lines to “fix” non-coding DNA function. To do so, they developed the CRISPR/CAS toolbox to understand and support the gene structure of editing results, and established new methods for randomizing the human genome sequence and characterizing the results.