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. Sloan, SL, Brown, F, Long, ME, Weigel, C, Koirala, S, Chung, JH et al.. PRMT5 supports multiple oncogenic pathways in mantle cell lymphoma. Blood. 2023; :. doi: 10.1182/blood.2022019419. PubMed PMID:37267517 .
  2. Sharkey, ME, Babler, KM, Shukla, BS, Abelson, SM, Alsuliman, B, Amirali, A et al.. Monkeypox viral nucleic acids detected using both DNA and RNA extraction workflows. Sci Total Environ. 2023;890 :164289. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164289. PubMed PMID:37216988 PubMed Central PMC10213602.
  3. Overbey, EG, Ryon, K, Kim, J, Tierney, B, Klotz, R, Ortiz, V et al.. Collection of Biospecimens from the Inspiration4 Mission Establishes the Standards for the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA). bioRxiv. 2023; :. doi: 10.1101/2023.05.02.539108. PubMed PMID:37205403 PubMed Central PMC10187258.
  4. Van Metre, PC, Qi, S, Deacon, J, Dieter, C, Driscoll, JM, Fienen, M et al.. Correction to: Prioritizing river basins for intensive monitoring and assessment by the US Geological Survey. Environ Monit Assess. 2023;195 (6):665. doi: 10.1007/s10661-023-11173-1. PubMed PMID:37173541 PubMed Central PMC10181963.
  5. Du, S, Tong, X, Lai, ACK, Chan, CK, Mason, CE, Lee, PKH et al.. Highly host-linked viromes in the built environment possess habitat-dependent diversity and functions for potential virus-host coevolution. Nat Commun. 2023;14 (1):2676. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-38400-0. PubMed PMID:37160974 PubMed Central PMC10169181.
  6. Mak, L, Tierney, B, Ronkowski, C, Toomey, M, Andrade Martinez, JS, Zimmerman, S et al.. A modular metagenomics analysis system for integrated multi-step data exploration. bioRxiv. 2023; :. doi: 10.1101/2023.04.09.536171. PubMed PMID:37066359 PubMed Central PMC10104186.
  7. Hénaff, E, Najjar, D, Perez, M, Flores, R, Woebken, C, Mason, CE et al.. Holobiont Urbanism: sampling urban beehives reveals cities' metagenomes. Environ Microbiome. 2023;18 (1):23. doi: 10.1186/s40793-023-00467-z. PubMed PMID:36991491 PubMed Central PMC10060141.
  8. Ma, Y, Sannino, D, Linden, JR, Haigh, S, Zhao, B, Grigg, JB et al.. Epsilon toxin-producing Clostridium perfringens colonize the multiple sclerosis gut microbiome overcoming CNS immune privilege. J Clin Invest. 2023;133 (9):. doi: 10.1172/JCI163239. PubMed PMID:36853799 PubMed Central PMC10145940.
  9. Li, J, Chin, CR, Ying, HY, Meydan, C, Teater, MR, Xia, M et al.. Cooperative super-enhancer inactivation caused by heterozygous loss of CREBBP and KMT2D skews B cell fate decisions and yields T cell-depleted lymphomas. bioRxiv. 2023; :. doi: 10.1101/2023.02.13.528351. PubMed PMID:36824887 PubMed Central PMC9949106.
  10. Cope, H, Elsborg, J, Demharter, S, Mcdonald, JT, Wernecke, C, Parthasarathy, H et al.. More than a Feeling: Dermatological Changes Impacted by Spaceflight. Res Sq. 2023; :. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2367727/v1. PubMed PMID:36798347 PubMed Central PMC9934743.
  11. Leca, J, Lemonnier, F, Meydan, C, Foox, J, El Ghamrasni, S, Mboumba, DL et al.. IDH2 and TET2 mutations synergize to modulate T Follicular Helper cell functional interaction with the AITL microenvironment. Cancer Cell. 2023;41 (2):323-339.e10. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2023.01.003. PubMed PMID:36736318 .
  12. Chander, AM, Teixeira, MM, Singh, NK, Williams, MP, Simpson, AC, Damle, N et al.. Description and Genome Characterization of Three Novel Fungal Strains Isolated from Mars 2020 Mission-Associated Spacecraft Assembly Facility Surfaces-Recommendations for Two New Genera and One Species. J Fungi (Basel). 2022;9 (1):. doi: 10.3390/jof9010031. PubMed PMID:36675851 PubMed Central PMC9864340.
  13. Westover, C, Rahmatulloev, S, Danko, D, Afshin, EE, O'Hara, NB, Ounit, R et al.. Ozone Disinfection for Elimination of Bacteria and Degradation of SARS-CoV2 RNA for Medical Environments. Genes (Basel). 2022;14 (1):. doi: 10.3390/genes14010085. PubMed PMID:36672826 PubMed Central PMC9858956.
  14. Fortin, J, Chiang, MF, Meydan, C, Foox, J, Ramachandran, P, Leca, J et al.. Distinct and opposite effects of leukemogenic Idh and Tet2 mutations in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023;120 (4):e2208176120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2208176120. PubMed PMID:36652477 PubMed Central PMC9942850.
  15. Babler, KM, Sharkey, ME, Abelson, S, Amirali, A, Benitez, A, Cosculluela, GA et al.. Degradation rates influence the ability of composite samples to represent 24-hourly means of SARS-CoV-2 and other microbiological target measures in wastewater. Sci Total Environ. 2023;867 :161423. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161423. PubMed PMID:36623667 PubMed Central PMC9817413.
  16. Gatt, C, Tierney, BT, Madrigal, P, Mason, CE, Beheshti, A, Telzerow, A et al.. The Maleth program: Malta's first space mission discoveries on the microbiome of diabetic foot ulcers. Heliyon. 2022;8 (12):e12075. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12075. PubMed PMID:36544819 PubMed Central PMC9761711.
  17. Sierra, MA, Ryon, KA, Tierney, BT, Foox, J, Bhattacharya, C, Afshin, E et al.. Microbiome and metagenomic analysis of Lake Hillier Australia reveals pigment-rich polyextremophiles and wide-ranging metabolic adaptations. Environ Microbiome. 2022;17 (1):60. doi: 10.1186/s40793-022-00455-9. PubMed PMID:36544228 PubMed Central PMC9768965.
  18. Rasmika Dewi, DAP, Shiwa, Y, Ryon, K, Mason, CE, Matsumoto, T, Suzuki, H et al.. Urban Microbiomes in Narita, Chiba, Japan: Shotgun Metagenome Sequences of a Train Station. Microbiol Resour Announc. 2023;12 (1):e0109222. doi: 10.1128/mra.01092-22. PubMed PMID:36515525 PubMed Central PMC9872656.
  19. Park, J, Kim, J, Lewy, T, Rice, CM, Elemento, O, Rendeiro, AF et al.. Spatial omics technologies at multimodal and single cell/subcellular level. Genome Biol. 2022;23 (1):256. doi: 10.1186/s13059-022-02824-6. PubMed PMID:36514162 PubMed Central PMC9746133.
  20. Talsania, K, Shen, TW, Chen, X, Jaeger, E, Li, Z, Chen, Z et al.. Structural variant analysis of a cancer reference cell line sample using multiple sequencing technologies. Genome Biol. 2022;23 (1):255. doi: 10.1186/s13059-022-02816-6. PubMed PMID:36514120 PubMed Central PMC9746098.
Search PubMed