Christopher Mason, Ph.D.

Professor of Physiology and Biophysics

  • Director, WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction and WorldQuant Foundation Research Scholar
  • Professor of Computational Genomics in Computational Biomedicine in the Institute for Computational Biomedicine
  • Professor of Neuroscience in the Brain and Mind Institute (secondary appointment)

646-962-5643

1305 York Avenue, Room Y-13.15
New York, NY 10021

Lab website: http://www.masonlab.net

Techniques

Research Areas

Member of:

Research Summary:

We utilize computational and experimental methodologies to identify and characterize the essential genetic elements that guide the function of the human genome, with a particular emphasis on the elements that orchestrate the development of the human brain. Our lab creates detailed cell-specific molecular maps of genetic, epigenetic, transcriptional, and translational activity, creating a draft of the molecular recipe for the creation of the brain. We also develop methods to detect, catalog and functionally annotate variants in the genetic pathways that control developmental processes and how they are perturbed to create disease. We aim to understand of the functional elements of the human genome well enough to enable, eventually, the ability to repair, re-engineer, or fortify these genetic networks within human cells.

Recent Publications:

  1. Garcia-Medina, JS, Sienkiewicz, K, Narayanan, SA, Overbey, EG, Grigorev, K, Ryon, KA et al.. Genome and clonal hematopoiesis stability contrasts with immune, cfDNA, mitochondrial, and telomere length changes during short duration spaceflight. Precis Clin Med. 2024;7 (1):pbae007. doi: 10.1093/pcmedi/pbae007. PubMed PMID:38634106 PubMed Central PMC11022651.
  2. Barisic, D, Chin, CR, Meydan, C, Teater, M, Tsialta, I, Mlynarczyk, C et al.. ARID1A orchestrates SWI/SNF-mediated sequential binding of transcription factors with ARID1A loss driving pre-memory B cell fate and lymphomagenesis. Cancer Cell. 2024;42 (4):720-722. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2024.03.012. PubMed PMID:38593783 .
  3. Mason, CE, Sierra, MA, Feng, HJ, Bailey, SM. Telomeres and aging: on and off the planet!. Biogerontology. 2024;25 (2):313-327. doi: 10.1007/s10522-024-10098-7. PubMed PMID:38581556 PubMed Central PMC10998805.
  4. Flores, VS, Amgarten, DE, Iha, BKV, Ryon, KA, Danko, D, Tierney, BT et al.. Discovery and description of novel phage genomes from urban microbiomes sampled by the MetaSUB consortium. Sci Rep. 2024;14 (1):7913. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-58226-0. PubMed PMID:38575625 PubMed Central PMC10994904.
  5. Li, J, Chin, CR, Ying, HY, Meydan, C, Teater, MR, Xia, M et al.. Loss of CREBBP and KMT2D cooperate to accelerate lymphomagenesis and shape the lymphoma immune microenvironment. Nat Commun. 2024;15 (1):2879. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47012-1. PubMed PMID:38570506 PubMed Central PMC10991284.
  6. Schmidt, MA, Jones, JA, Mason, CE. Optimizing human performance in extreme environments through precision medicine: From spaceflight to high-performance operations on Earth. Camb Prism Precis Med. 2023;1 :e27. doi: 10.1017/pcm.2023.16. PubMed PMID:38550927 PubMed Central PMC10953751.
  7. Wu, J, Hu, Y, Perlin, MH, Danko, D, Lu, J, Oliveira, M et al.. Landscape of global urban environmental resistome and its association with local socioeconomic and medical status. Sci China Life Sci. 2024; :. doi: 10.1007/s11427-023-2504-1. PubMed PMID:38489008 .
  8. Zhan, Q, Solo-Gabriele, HM, Sharkey, ME, Amirali, A, Beaver, CC, Boone, MM et al.. Correlative analysis of wastewater trends with clinical cases and hospitalizations through five dominant variant waves of COVID-19. ACS ES T Water. 2023;3 (9):2849-2862. doi: 10.1021/acsestwater.3c00032. PubMed PMID:38487696 PubMed Central PMC10936583.
  9. Chan, ICC, Panchot, A, Schmidt, E, McNulty, S, Wiley, BJ, Liu, J et al.. ArCH: improving the performance of clonal hematopoiesis variant calling and interpretation. Bioinformatics. 2024;40 (4):. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btae121. PubMed PMID:38485690 PubMed Central PMC11014783.
  10. Deng, Q, Lakra, P, Gou, P, Yang, H, Meydan, C, Teater, M et al.. SMARCA4 is a haploinsufficient B cell lymphoma tumor suppressor that fine-tunes centrocyte cell fate decisions. Cancer Cell. 2024;42 (4):605-622.e11. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2024.02.011. PubMed PMID:38458188 PubMed Central PMC11003852.
  11. Barisic, D, Chin, CR, Meydan, C, Teater, M, Tsialta, I, Mlynarczyk, C et al.. ARID1A orchestrates SWI/SNF-mediated sequential binding of transcription factors with ARID1A loss driving pre-memory B cell fate and lymphomagenesis. Cancer Cell. 2024;42 (4):583-604.e11. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2024.02.010. PubMed PMID:38458187 .
  12. Mason, CK, Adie, SK, Shea, MJ, Konerman, MC, Thomas, MP, McSparron, JI et al.. Post-intensive cardiac care outpatient long-term outreach clinic (PICCOLO clinic): Defining health care needs and outcomes among coronary care unit survivors. Am Heart J Plus. 2024;38 :. doi: 10.1016/j.ahjo.2024.100363. PubMed PMID:38434252 PubMed Central PMC10906849.
  13. Amirali, A, Babler, KM, Sharkey, ME, Beaver, CC, Boone, MM, Comerford, S et al.. Wastewater based surveillance can be used to reduce clinical testing intensity on a university campus. Sci Total Environ. 2024;918 :170452. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170452. PubMed PMID:38296085 PubMed Central PMC10923133.
  14. Babler, KM, Sharkey, ME, Amirali, A, Boone, MM, Comerford, S, Currall, BB et al.. Expanding a Wastewater-Based Surveillance Methodology for DNA Isolation from a Workflow Optimized for SARS-CoV-2 RNA Quantification. J Biomol Tech. 2023;34 (4):. doi: 10.7171/3fc1f5fe.dfa8d906. PubMed PMID:38268997 PubMed Central PMC10805363.
  15. Narayanan, SA, Jamison, DA Jr, Guarnieri, JW, Zaksas, V, Topper, M, Koutnik, AP et al.. A comprehensive SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 review, Part 2: host extracellular to systemic effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Eur J Hum Genet. 2024;32 (1):10-20. doi: 10.1038/s41431-023-01462-1. PubMed PMID:37938797 PubMed Central PMC10772081.
  16. Simpson, AC, Sengupta, P, Zhang, F, Hameed, A, Parker, CW, Singh, NK et al.. Phylogenomics, phenotypic, and functional traits of five novel (Earth-derived) bacterial species isolated from the International Space Station and their prevalence in metagenomes. Sci Rep. 2023;13 (1):19207. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-44172-w. PubMed PMID:37932283 PubMed Central PMC10628120.
  17. Tierney, BT, Kim, J, Overbey, EG, Ryon, KA, Foox, J, Sierra, M et al.. Viral activation and ecological restructuring characterize a microbiome axis of spaceflight-associated immune activation. Res Sq. 2023; :. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2493867/v1. PubMed PMID:37886447 PubMed Central PMC10602132.
  18. Merdler-Rabinowicz, R, Gorelik, D, Park, J, Meydan, C, Foox, J, Karmon, M et al.. Elevated A-to-I RNA editing in COVID-19 infected individuals. NAR Genom Bioinform. 2023;5 (4):lqad092. doi: 10.1093/nargab/lqad092. PubMed PMID:37859800 PubMed Central PMC10583280.
  19. Zhang, Y, Ruff, SE, Oskolkov, N, Tierney, BT, Ryon, K, Danko, D et al.. The microbial biodiversity at the archeological site of Tel Megiddo (Israel). Front Microbiol. 2023;14 :1253371. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1253371. PubMed PMID:37808297 PubMed Central PMC10559971.
  20. Long, ME, Koirala, S, Sloan, S, Brown-Burke, F, Weigel, C, Villagomez, L et al.. Resistance to PRMT5-targeted therapy in mantle cell lymphoma. Blood Adv. 2024;8 (1):150-163. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2023010554. PubMed PMID:37782774 PubMed Central PMC10787272.
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