Upcoming Events

Wednesday, May 21
Genome Sciences Seminar: Dr. Tami Lieberman | MIT
"Community assembly in microbiomes at the strain level"
3:30 | Foege Auditorium | flier | talk will be recorded | student-invited speaker | remote viewing option

Wednesday, May 28
Genome Sciences Seminar: Dr. Krishna Niyogi | UC Berkeley
"Understanding and altering chloroplast photoprotection to improve photosynthesis"
3:30 | Foege Auditorium | flier | talk will be recorded | remote viewing option

Nobel Prize

David Baker has been awarded the Nobel Prize.

New Faculty

Genome Sciences is pleased to announce that Dr. Saori Sakaue has accepted our offer to join the department as an assistant professor. Dr. Sakaue received her MD/PhD from the University of Tokyo, where she worked on genetic analyses of global biobanks. She conducted postdoctoral research with Soumya Raychaudhuri at Harvard, focusing on developing single-cell genomics tools to understand the role of genetic variants in gene regulation. Her lab will focus on developing and using statistical genetics tools to integrate molecular data for understanding disease mechanisms, ultimately addressing clinical challenges for future patients.


Genome Sciences is pleased to announce that Dr. William DeWitt has accepted our offer to join the department as an assistant professor. Dr. DeWitt was a graduate student with Kelley Harris and Frederick Matsen in Genome Sciences and the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, and a postdoctoral fellow with Yun Song at the University of California, Berkeley. Throughout his career, he has tackled computational and theoretical problems in evolutionary dynamics and quantitative immunology. His lab will pursue work in probabilistic and dynamical modeling, statistical inference, and machine learning, all grounded by questions about evolving biological systems.

Department News

Lara Muffley has been awarded the UW Distinguished Staff Award for Collaboration.
Lizzie Plender is featured on the ASHG Trainee Excellence Spotlight Podcast.
Hannah Jordt (faculty), Deanna Plubell (postdoc), Sandra Pennington (staff), and Leah Anderson (student) have received the UW Genome Sciences Department Outstanding Service Award.

Introducing the 2025 Incoming Class:

Yuanye Chi - Tufts University / Jackson Lab
Max Dippel – UW / Boston University / Benaroya Research Institute
Kyra Fetter - UC San Diego
John Gourdeau - Dartmouth / Manifold Biotechnologies
Saksham Gupta - India Institute of Technology, Kanpur / FHCC
Michelle Johnson - Harvey Mudd College / Caltech
Allie Kreitman – UW MSTP
Tiger Lao - UC Santa Barbara / Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
Kayla Ly - UC Irvine
Valerie Lynch – University of Texas / UW Genome Sciences
Chris Oliveira – UW MSTP
Monica Padilla Galvez - National Autonomous University of Mexico / FHCC
Katrina Peterson - Northwestern University
Olivia Weissenfels - UW / Johns Hopkins
Morgan Wu – UW MSTP

Chris McGann and Bo Wen have received graduate student awards at the 2025 ASMS Conference.
Celeste Berg has been named an AAAS Fellow.
Abby McGee, Michelle Johnson, and Val Browning have been awarded NSF Fellowships. Matt Chaw, Marazzano Colon, Bria Metzger, Rachel Powell, and Catherine Sniezek have received honorable mention.
Syd Sattler has received the first place travel award for best graduate student talk at the Northwest Developmental Biology Conference.
Connor Finkbeiner has been awarded an NRSA Fellowship.
Alison Feder has received the Early Career Achievement in STEM award from Seattle AWIS.
Xavi Guitart / General Molecular Electronics has been awarded second place at the UW Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge.
Mary-Claire King to receive NAS Public Welfare Medal
Mapping Genetic Variants and Their Ties to Disease.
Lara Muffley and Matthew Richardson have been nominated for the UW Distinguished Staff Award.
DNA Today Podcast out last week:
Revolutionizing Variant Curation with Multiplex Assays of Variant Effect- Interview with Lea Starita and Doug Fowler
David Baker, Kate Crawford, Riza Daza, Evan Eichler, Sean Gibbons, Allison Greaney, Jay Shendure, and Cole Trapnell have been named to Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers List for 2024.
NASA Selects Two Teams to Advance Life Sciences Research in Space
Anupama Jha, Mitchell Vollger, and Ran Zhang have received NHGRI K99 awards.
Vincent Chau, Haley Parrett, and Catherine Rasgaitis have been awarded the Roman Undergraduate Scholarship.
Maitreya Dunham Named Chair of the Department of Genome Sciences
Cole Mueth and Lizzie Plender have been awarded Parker Travel Awards for best poster at the 2024 department retreat.
Gabby Ferra has been selected as an ASHG Human Genetics Scholar.
Devin Schweppe has been named a Pew Biomedical Scholar.
Elliott Swanson has been awarded a Curci Fellowship.
UW Genome Sciences Hackathon Leads to New Long-Read Sequencing Technology
Syd Sattler, Renee Geck, Skylar Thompson, and Atom Lesiak have received the inaugural Genome Sciences Department Outstanding Service Award.
Gabby Ferra has been awarded the Bonita and David Brewer Fellowship.

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