Announcing the 2025 CSCI Seed Fund Winners: Drs. Alessandro Gennarino, Christopher Makinson, and Claudia Doege

Vincenzo Alessandro Gennarino, PhD & Christopher Makinson, PhD

“Generating and characterizing sex-specific variants in PUMILIO1-related diseases”

We will build genetically engineered iPSC systems with inducible and reversible genetic alterations for genes essential during reprogramming and differentiation. Using these systems, and STAG2 as a proof of principle, we will test genetic and chemical dependencies of such genes in a time-dependent assessment during reprogramming and differentiation.

Claudia Doege, MD

“Stipulating cis-regulatory elements and cognate genes in human stem cell-derived hypothalamic POMC neurons”

Most obese patients suffer from obesity that is ~ 50% heritable due to the influence of hundreds of obesity-associated alleles of very modest individual effect. We will use human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived hypothalamic neurons to assess these aggregate influences in the dish. Human iPSC, as generated from the blood of obese individuals nominally segregating for hundreds of obesity-risk alleles and from lean individuals segregating for fewer alleles, will be differentiated into hypothalamic neurons, investigated using a single-cell multimodal omics approach and thus, we aim to identify novel molecular pathways for the next generation of weight management medications.

Please join us in congratulating the winners of this year’s CSCI Seed Fund competition!