Upcoming Events

Wednesday, September 24
Genome Sciences Seminar: Dr. Rebecca Price | University of Washington, Bothell
"Scientific teaching: impacts on service, professional development, and faculty affairs"
3:30 | Foege Auditorium | COGS-invited speaker | talk will be recorded | flier

Wednesday, October 1
Combi Seminar: Dr. Rob Bradley | FHCC
"Predicting future experimental results with generative genomics"
1:30 | Foege Auditorium | talk will not be recorded | flier

Wednesday, October 1
Genome Sciences Seminar: Dr. Amy Ikui | Brooklyn College
"ORC1 Localization Dynamics During Multiple Fission: Clues to the Evolution of DNA Replication"
3:30 | Foege Auditorium | talk will not be recorded | flier

Graduate Program Information Sessions:
Tuesday, 10/7/25, 10:00 a.m. (pacific time)
Thursday, 10/23/25, 2:00 p.m. (pacific time)
Sessions will be held via Zoom. Please register here.

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

Zukai Liu and Bria Metzger have been awarded Parker Travel Awards for best poster at the 2025 department retreat.
Olivia Waltner has been awarded the Bonita and David Brewer Fellowship.
Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong has been named a Pew Biomedical Scholar.
Caleb Carr and Jenny Nathans have been awarded NRSA Fellowships.
Maggie Russell has received the UW Graduate School’s Distinguished Dissertation Award.
Alison Feder has received the SMBE 2025 Early-Career Excellence Award.
Leah Anderson has received the best talk award at the 2025 Pacific Northwest Yeast Club Meeting.
Leah Anderson and Elliott Swanson have received the 2025 Sonia Ting Travel Award.
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.

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