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Genetics Cluster Initiative

Genetics transcends departments, colleges and disciplines and generates both needs and services in the basic sciences, health care, bioethics, law, bioinformatics and communications.

>1400

Education event attendees

Career Day

> 50 %

Acceptance rate to graduate programs

Mentorship for Prospective Students in Genetic Counseling

Interns 2013-2023

49

Summer interns

Internship Program in Genetic Counseling and Bioinformatics

Applying to Genetic Counseling Graduate Programs

Recent Publications

Maternal α-cypermethrin and permethrin exert differential effects on fetal growth, placental morphology, and fetal neurodevelopment in mice

Sunday, June 15, 2025
Benjamin A Elser
Pyrethroid insecticides represent a broad class of chemicals used widely in agriculture and household applications. Human studies show mixed effects of maternal pyrethroid exposure on fetal growth and neurodevelopment. Assessment of shared pyrethroid metabolites as a biomarker for exposure obscures effects of specific chemicals within this broader class. To better characterize pyrethroid effects on fetal development, we investigated maternal exposure to permethrin, a type I pyrethroid, and...

The impact of PCR duplication on RNAseq data generated using NovaSeq 6000, NovaSeq X, AVITI, and G4 sequencers

Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Natalia Zajac
CONCLUSIONS: Data generated with each of the four sequencing platforms presents similar associations between starting material amount and the number of PCR cycles on PCR duplicates, a similar number of detected genes, and comparable gene expression profiles.

MixOmics Integration of Biological Datasets Identifies Highly Correlated Variables of COVID-19 Severity

Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Noa C Harriott
Despite several years passing since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, challenges remain in understanding the factors that can predict the severity of COVID-19 disease and complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection. While many large-scale multi-omic datasets have been published, integration of these datasets has the potential to substantially increase the biological insight gained, allowing a more complex comprehension of the disease pathogenesis. Such insight may improve our ability to predict...

Maternal α-cypermethrin and permethrin exert differential effects on fetal growth, placental morphology, and fetal neurodevelopment in mice

Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Benjamin A Elser
Pyrethroid insecticides represent a broad class of chemicals used widely in agriculture and household applications. Human studies show mixed effects of maternal pyrethroid exposure on fetal growth and neurodevelopment. Assessment of shared pyrethroid metabolites as a biomarker for exposure obscures effects of specific chemicals within this broader class. To better characterize pyrethroid effects on fetal development, we investigated maternal exposure to permethrin, a type I pyrethroid, and...

Ceramide-induced FGF13 impairs systemic metabolic health

Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Jamal Naderi
Ceramide accumulation impairs adipocytes' ability to efficiently store and utilize nutrients, leading to energy and glucose homeostasis deterioration. Using a comparative transcriptomic screen, we identified the non-canonical, non-secreted fibroblast growth factor FGF13 as a ceramide-regulated factor that impairs adipocyte function. Obesity robustly induces FGF13 expression in adipose tissue in mice and humans and is positively associated with glycemic indices of type 2 diabetes. Pharmacological...

Events

Dissertation Seminar: Break-induced Replication: Two Roles in Genome Instability promotional image

Dissertation Seminar: Break-induced Replication: Two Roles in Genome Instability

Wednesday, June 18, 2025 9:00am
Biology Building East
Kendra Musmaker, a PhD candidate in the Integrated Biology (iBio) Graduate Program, will be defending her dissertation on Wednesday, June 18, at 9:00am CDT in Room 106, Biology Building East (BBE), and via Zoom (see attached flyer for the Zoom link). Kendra’s mentor is Anna Malkova, former Roy J. Carver Professor of Biology at the University and Iowa and current Professor of Biochemistry and Structural Biology at UT Health San Antonio. The seminar is open to the public to attend.

REDCap MyCap Training

Wednesday, June 18, 2025 10:00am to 11:00am
Virtual
This is the fifth step in the REDCap training series. In this training, we will discuss using the MyCap mobile app for data collection. We will cover features such as: Creating participants Creating tasks and schedules Active tasks and their unique data output Direct messages and announcements This training is a demo and not hands-on. After this training, you will have a basic understanding of the MyCap mobile app for REDCap. Register by clicking the virtual event link above or by going...
Hardin Open Workshops - PubMed (Zoom) promotional image

Hardin Open Workshops - PubMed (Zoom)

Wednesday, June 18, 2025 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Virtual
This hands-on session will help you improve your searching through best practices for basic and advanced searching and show you features for saving or exporting citations. The session will also help you understand medical subject headings (MeSH) and how they improve your search as well as the benefits of a MyNCBI account.PLEASE NOTE:Class will be taught via Zoom. Advance registration is required. Registrants will be emailed the Zoom link 30 minutes before the class time.