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. Nachman, R, Kopacz, A, Unkenholz, C, Chai, J, Ruiz, A, Valencia, I et al.. Single-cell spatial mapping reveals dynamic bone marrow microarchitectural alterations and enhances clinical diagnostics in MDS. bioRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.1101/2025.10.02.680138. PubMed PMID:41279873 PubMed Central PMC12632391.
  2. Ferraro, S, Ghani, F, Tosi, M, Dave, A, Verduci, E, Mauri, A et al.. Children's health: insights from space medicine on metabolic health. NPJ Microgravity. 2025;11 (1):81. doi: 10.1038/s41526-025-00533-5. PubMed PMID:41266361 PubMed Central PMC12635258.
  3. Tullius, TW, Heuer, RA, Bohaczuk, SC, Mallory, B, Dubocanin, D, Ranchalis, J et al.. Protamine lacunae preserve the paternal chromatin landscape in sperm. bioRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.1101/2025.10.03.680364. PubMed PMID:41256633 PubMed Central PMC12621882.
  4. Montel Hayes, R, Mason, CE, Miller, JJ. The clinical use of epigenetics in psychiatry: a narrative review of epigenetic mechanisms, key candidate genes, and precision psychiatry. Front Psychiatry. 2025;16 :1671122. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1671122. PubMed PMID:41234420 PubMed Central PMC12605923.
  5. Ferraro, S, Sengupta, S, Shaw, J, Dave, A, Cheli, M, Colon, R et al.. Point of care testing of biochemical markers for monitoring astronauts during long duration missions in deep space. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2025; :. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2025-0526. PubMed PMID:41140086 .
  6. Anwar, S, Lamaudiere, M, Hassall, J, Dehinsilu, J, Bhuller, RK, Hold, GL et al.. DNA reference reagents isolate biases in microbiome profiling: a global multi-lab study. mSystems. 2025;10 (11):e0046625. doi: 10.1128/msystems.00466-25. PubMed PMID:41104927 PubMed Central PMC12625696.
  7. Winer, DA, Du, H, Kim, J, Chang, V, Burke, M, Winer, S et al.. Astroimmunology: the effects of spaceflight and its associated stressors on the immune system. Nat Rev Immunol. 2025; :. doi: 10.1038/s41577-025-01226-6. PubMed PMID:41102553 .
  8. Karouia, F, de Oliveira, LC, Hameed, A, Simpson, A, Singh, N, Rekha, PD et al.. Genomic characterization of Microbacterium meiriae sp. nov., a novel bacterium isolated from the International Space Station. Sci Rep. 2025;15 (1):35770. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-13974-5. PubMed PMID:41087377 PubMed Central PMC12521503.
  9. Sharma, G, Munteanu, V, Ghiasi, NM, Banerjee, J, Varma, S, Foschini, L et al.. A decentralized future for the open-science databases. ArXiv. 2025; :. . PubMed PMID:41040803 PubMed Central PMC12486051.
  10. Sakharkar, A, Chen, R, LeRoy, E, Nelson, TM, Proszynski, J, Kim, J et al.. Multi-Omics Profiling of Individuals Sustaining Extreme Physical Stressors. Life (Basel). 2025;15 (9):. doi: 10.3390/life15091377. PubMed PMID:41010319 PubMed Central PMC12471032.
  11. Lee, R, Rayhun, A, Kim, JK, Meydan, C, Beheshti, A, Sporn, K et al.. Genomic Analysis of Cardiovascular Diseases Utilizing Space Omics and Medical Atlas. Genes (Basel). 2025;16 (9):. doi: 10.3390/genes16090996. PubMed PMID:41009942 PubMed Central PMC12469784.
  12. Sierra, MA, Ryon, K, Arikatla, MR, Elshafey, R, Bhaskar, H, Proszynski, J et al.. The Microbe Directory: a centralized database for biological interpretation of microbiome data. Database (Oxford). 2025;2025 :. doi: 10.1093/database/baaf060. PubMed PMID:40996703 PubMed Central PMC12462379.
  13. Lamm, ED, Babler, KM, Sharkey, ME, Amirali, A, Beaver, C, Boone, MM et al.. Inclusion of Physical-Chemical Water Quality Measurements Can Improve Associations between SARS-CoV-2 RNA Levels in Wastewater and COVID-19 Cases within Smaller Sewersheds. J Environ Eng (New York). 2025;151 (9):. doi: 10.1061/joeedu.eeeng-8138. PubMed PMID:40978681 PubMed Central PMC12445732.
  14. Barone, PD, Dzedzik, S, Kleinman, AS, Chin, CR, Meydan, C, Valencia, I et al.. Wild-type p53 overexpression in NPM1-mutated acute myeloid leukemia: potential implications for disease biology and therapy response. Haematologica. 2025; :. doi: 10.3324/haematol.2025.288054. PubMed PMID:40931876 .
  15. Prajapati, SC, Meydan, C, Neelamraju, Y, Wang, Z, Fan, H, Dunham, N et al.. CCAAT-enhancer binding protein delta functions as a tumor suppressor gene in acute myeloid leukemia. bioRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.1101/2025.08.25.670309. PubMed PMID:40909626 PubMed Central PMC12407753.
  16. Lei, H, Du, S, Tong, X, Chan, WL, Leung, MHY, Bøifot, KO et al.. Global biogeography of airborne viruses in public transit systems and their host interactions. Microbiome. 2025;13 (1):193. doi: 10.1186/s40168-025-02173-z. PubMed PMID:40883783 PubMed Central PMC12395665.
  17. Harbi, E, Mason, CE. Use of Protein Arginine Methyltransferase Inhibitors in Gliomas. JCO Precis Oncol. 2025;9 :e2500518. doi: 10.1200/PO-25-00518. PubMed PMID:40865032 .
  18. Jafari, H, Brown-Burke, F, Pray, B, Sloan, S, Helmig-Mason, J, Hout, I et al.. The Novel Immunocompetent Eµ-SOX11CCND1 Mouse Model Phenotypically and Molecularly Resembles Human Mantle Cell Lymphoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2025;31 (21):4571-4585. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-25-0534. PubMed PMID:40857109 PubMed Central PMC12442894.
  19. McDaniel, JH, Patel, V, Olson, ND, He, HJ, He, Z, Cole, KD et al.. Correction: Development and extensive sequencing of a broadly-consented Genome in a Bottle matched tumor-normal pair. Sci Data. 2025;12 (1):1385. doi: 10.1038/s41597-025-05752-9. PubMed PMID:40781089 PubMed Central PMC12334583.
  20. Harbi, E, Yarar, E, Mason, CE, Aschner, M, Altundag, A. Intranasal Terpene Treatment for Glioblastoma: the Neuro-Oncological Potential of Perillyl Alcohol. Neurochem Res. 2025;50 (4):254. doi: 10.1007/s11064-025-04505-9. PubMed PMID:40728696 .
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