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. 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. 2023; :. doi: 10.1038/s41431-023-01462-1. PubMed PMID:37938797 .
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Long, ME, Koirala, S, Sloan, SL, Brown-Burke, F, Weigel, C, Villagomez, L et al.. Resistance to PRMT5 Targeted Therapy in Mantle Cell Lymphoma. Blood Adv. 2023; :. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2023010554. PubMed PMID:37782774 .
  7. Garcias-Bonet, N, Roik, A, Tierney, B, García, FC, Villela, HDM, Dungan, AM et al.. Horizon scanning the application of probiotics for wildlife. Trends Microbiol. 2023; :. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2023.08.012. PubMed PMID:37758552 .
  8. Wu, J, Qing, H, Ouyang, J, Zhou, J, Gao, Z, Mason, CE et al.. HiFun: homology independent protein function prediction by a novel protein-language self-attention model. Brief Bioinform. 2023;24 (5):. doi: 10.1093/bib/bbad311. PubMed PMID:37649370 .
  9. Babler, KM, Amirali, A, Sharkey, ME, Williams, SL, Boone, MM, Cosculluela, GA et al.. Comparison of Electronegative Filtration to Magnetic Bead-Based Concentration and V2G-qPCR to RT-qPCR for Quantifying Viral SARS-CoV-2 RNA from Wastewater. ACS ES T Water. 2022;2 (11):2004-2013. doi: 10.1021/acsestwater.2c00047. PubMed PMID:37601294 PubMed Central PMC10438908.
  10. Olarte-Castillo, XA, Licitra, BN, André, NM, Sierra, MA, Mason, CE, Goodman, LB et al.. Intra-host variation in the spike S1/S2 region of a feline coronavirus type-1 in a cat with persistent infection. bioRxiv. 2023; :. doi: 10.1101/2023.07.31.551356. PubMed PMID:37577589 PubMed Central PMC10418068.
  11. Leo, P, de Melo Texeira, M, Chander, AM, Singh, NK, Simpson, AC, Yurkov, A et al.. Genomic characterization and radiation tolerance of Naganishia kalamii sp. nov. and Cystobasidium onofrii sp. nov. from Mars 2020 mission assembly facilities. IMA Fungus. 2023;14 (1):15. doi: 10.1186/s43008-023-00119-4. PubMed PMID:37568226 PubMed Central PMC10422843.
  12. Guarnieri, JW, Dybas, JM, Fazelinia, H, Kim, MS, Frere, J, Zhang, Y et al.. Core mitochondrial genes are down-regulated during SARS-CoV-2 infection of rodent and human hosts. Sci Transl Med. 2023;15 (708):eabq1533. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abq1533. PubMed PMID:37556555 .
  13. Abelson, S, Penso, J, Alsuliman, B, Babler, K, Sharkey, M, Stevenson, M et al.. COVID-19 Case and Mortality Surveillance using Daily SARS-CoV-2 in Wastewater Samples adjusting for Meteorological Conditions and Sample pH. medRxiv. 2023; :. doi: 10.1101/2023.07.12.23292570. PubMed PMID:37502918 PubMed Central PMC10370245.
  14. Simpson, AC, Sengupta, P, Zhang, F, Hameed, A, Parker, CW, Singh, NK et al.. Phylogenetic affiliations and genomic characterization of novel bacterial species and their abundance in the International Space Station. Res Sq. 2023; :. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3126314/v1. PubMed PMID:37461605 PubMed Central PMC10350232.
  15. Babler, K, Sharkey, M, Arenas, S, Amirali, A, Beaver, C, Comerford, S et al.. Detection of the clinically persistent, pathogenic yeast spp. Candida auris from hospital and municipal wastewater in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Sci Total Environ. 2023;898 :165459. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165459. PubMed PMID:37442462 PubMed Central PMC10543605.
  16. Shiwa, Y, Baba, T, Sierra, MA, Kim, J, Mason, CE, Suzuki, H et al.. Evaluation of rRNA depletion methods for capturing the RNA virome from environmental surfaces. BMC Res Notes. 2023;16 (1):142. doi: 10.1186/s13104-023-06417-9. PubMed PMID:37420286 PubMed Central PMC10326927.
  17. Rapaport, F, Seier, K, Neelamraju, Y, Hassane, D, Baslan, T, Gildea, DT et al.. Correction: Integrative analysis identifies an older female-linked AML patient group with better risk in ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group's clinical trial E3999. Blood Cancer J. 2023;13 (1):103. doi: 10.1038/s41408-023-00862-2. PubMed PMID:37407550 PubMed Central PMC10322919.
  18. Tierney, BT, Foox, J, Ryon, KA, Butler, D, Damle, N, Young, BG et al.. Geospatially-resolved public-health surveillance via wastewater sequencing. medRxiv. 2023; :. doi: 10.1101/2023.05.31.23290781. PubMed PMID:37398062 PubMed Central PMC10312847.
  19. Simpson, AC, Eedara, VVR, Singh, NK, Damle, N, Parker, CW, Karouia, F et al.. Comparative genomic analysis of Cohnella hashimotonis sp. nov. isolated from the International Space Station. Front Microbiol. 2023;14 :1166013. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1166013. PubMed PMID:37396358 PubMed Central PMC10308117.
  20. Sloan, SL, Brown, F, Long, M, Weigel, C, Koirala, S, Chung, JH et al.. PRMT5 supports multiple oncogenic pathways in mantle cell lymphoma. Blood. 2023;142 (10):887-902. doi: 10.1182/blood.2022019419. PubMed PMID:37267517 PubMed Central PMC10517215.
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