News

October 2023
The Gerton Lab enjoyed a fun team building event day at the Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium!
October 2023
Congratulations to Preethi Kunchala on her successful thesis defense!
July 2023
The Gerton Lab congratulates Siddharth Shivanandan for his acceptance into the GSSIMR predoctoral research program!
July 2023
The Gerton Lab congratulates Michaey Diez for his acceptance into the GSSIMR predoctoral research program!
April 2023
Congratulations to Alexandria Cockrell on her successful thesis defense!
March 2023
The Gerton Lab welcomes undergraduate researcher Luis Felipe Ramirez Sanchez to the lab!
Jan 2023
The Gerton Lab welcomes visiting scientist Matt Franklin from UCSD!
Oct 2022
Congratulations to Anna Galligos for Best Trainee Flash Talk at the 19th Annual Greenwald Symposium!
Sept 2022
The Gerton Lab welcomes visiting student Sarah Joseph from Rockhurst University!
Sept 2022
The Gerton Lab welcomes postdoctoral research associate Fatimah Aljubran! Fatimah will study the role of genomic instability and infammaging in ovarian function.
July 2022
The Gerton Lab congratulates Paxton Kostos for her acceptance into the GSSIMR predoctoral research program!
June 2022
The Gerton Lab welcomes MD/PhD summer rotation student Dana Thalman!
June 2022
The Gerton Lab welcomes GSSIMR predoctoral researcher Anna Galligos! Anna will study the role of proteostasis in female reproductive aging.
May 2022
Jennifer Gerton and Roy Jensen, Director of the University of Kansas Cancer Center, discuss advances in human centromere research and the benefits of interfacing with patient advocate Mary Frances Haake. https://www.facebook.com/events/d41d8cd9/how-genetics-research-may-transform-cancer-care/511758780593976/
May 2022
We are excited about the resumption of in-person meetings! Preethi Kunchala and Victoria Hassebroek attend the EMBO workshop on Chromosome segregation and aneuploidy. https://meetings.embo.org/event/22-chromosome-segregation
May 2022
The human genome is finally assembled from Telomere to telomere. Check out this article in Science by Elizabeth Pennisi with an image from Tamara Potapova, Research Specialist. https://www.science.org/content/article/most-complete-human-genome-yet-reveals-previously-indecipherable-dna
April 2022
The Gerton Lab welcomes KUMC practicum student Regan Putnam.
March 2022
Congratulations to Stowers Graduate School predoctoral researcher Sarah Gilmour for passing her qualifying exams!
March 2022
Jennifer had the opportunity to meet with mentee Sameen Basha at the Women in leadership breakfast at Shawnee Mission West high school. Sameen is a senior bound for a career in medicine.
December 2021
Congratulations to Wei-Ting Yueh on his successful thesis defense!
November 2021
The Gerton lab welcomes Dr. Alex Prosser, MD, a visiting scientist from Children's Mercy Hospital. Dr. Prosser will examine repetitive DNA genotypes and their alterations in pediatric cancer.
October 2021
Emerging roles of the nucleolus, co-organized by Dr. Gerton, was a (virtual) success! Great presentations and interactions. Gerton lab members Lexy Cockrell and Tamara Potapova gave excellent presentations of their exciting projects.
September 2021
The T2T consortium has achieved a world record!!!
September 2021
Senior Research Associate Dr. Vijay Pratap Singh won the NIH New Investigator Award for his talk on placental senescence at the International Federation of Placental Associations (IFPA) 2021 conference. Congratulations!
July 2021
Leo, Tamara, and Matthew contributed to the consortium effort to complete the human genome, an exciting milestone for science!”

Scientists Finish the Human Genome at Last
June 2021
Tamara Potapova and Lexy Cockrell are presenting their research June 2021 at the OddPols 2021: International Conference on Transcription Mechanism and Regulation.
June 2021
The complete sequence of the human genome is now available on bioRxiv, contributions from Gerton lab members Leonardo Gomes de Lima and Tamara Potapova. This achievement has been featured in the news, for example by PBS.
May 2021
The Gerton Lab welcomes summer scholar Emily Burt and research technician Paxton Kostos.
April 2021
Dr. Gerton served as host for the latest edition of BIG IDEAS @ScienceStowers where she hosted her PhD advisor, Dr. Patrick Brown, Founder and CEO of Impossible Foods.

Watch the video
August 2020
Congrats to Vijay Pratap Singh, his paper was Editor's Choice in Science!!!
August 2020
Sarah Gilmour joins the lab with joint mentorship by SaraH Zanders.
February 2020
The Gerton Lab welcomed Dr. Judith Campisi from The Buck Institute for Research to present a talk entitled, Cancer and aging: Rival demons?
Fall 2019
Dr. Gerton presented talks at UT Southwestern in Houston TX, the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
October 2019
The Stowers Institute hosted the 2019 ASBMB Symposium, "Emerging Roles for the Nucleolus" with Dr. Jennifer Gerton as the co-organizer. This symposium addressed fundamental questions on nucleolar structure and function, touching on diverse scientific fields such as RNA biology, nuclear organization, gene regulation and genome stability.

Congratulations to Tamara Potopova for her talk and Devika Salim for her poster presentation!
October 2019
Dr. Gerton presented a talk at the 12th Annual Midwest Yeast Meeting at Northwestern University.
September 2019
Dr. Gerton presented a talk at the EMBO Workshop on SMC proteins entitled, "Persistent DNA damage impacts development in mouse cohesinopathy models" in Vienna, Austria.
September 2019
The Gerton Lab welcomed Dr. Brian McStay from the National University of Ireland, Galway, to present a talk entitled, "Nucleolar formation in human cells; a chromosomal perspective"
September 2019
Congratulations to Devika Salim on her successful thesis defense! Pictured here with her committee.
August 2019
The Gerton Lab welcomed Dr. Frank Uhlmann from the Francis Crick Institute to present a talk entitled From DNA to Chromosomes - the Role and Functions of SMC Complexes."
July 2019
Congratulations to Tamara Potopova and Karthik Dhatchinamoorthy for their recent acceptance of the paper Super-resolution microscopy reveals linkages between ribosomal DNA on heterologous chromosomes to the Journal of Cell Biology!
June 2019
The Gerton Lab welcomed their newest postdoctoral research associate Leonardo Gomes de Lima to the team!
June 2019
The Gerton Lab welcomed its two new Summer Scholars Eric Ebert and Balashankar Radhakrisha to the team!
May 2019
The Gerton Lab enjoyed a fun team building event at the Gottlieb Planetarium at Union Station in Kansas City!
May 2019
Research Specialist Tamara Potapova presented a poster at the EMBO workshop Chromosome Segregation and Aneuploidy in Cascais, Portugal.
May 2019
The Gerton Lab welcomed their newest postdoctoral research associate Ayantika Gupta to the team!
May 2019
Congratulations to Wei-Ting Yueh and Alexandria Cockrell for recently passing their qualifying exams!
April 2019
Gerton Lab postdoctoral research associate Vijay Pratap Singh presented an institute-wide talk at the Friday Science Club, "Persistent DNA damage and senescence in placenta impacts developmental outcomes in mouse cohesinopathy models"
March 2019
Congratulations to Wei-Ting Yueh and Vijay Singh for the recent acceptance of their paper to the journal Reproduction, Oocyte-specific deletion of Hdac8 in mice reveals stage-specific effects on fertilit
February 2019
Chris Gamblin made this amazing “gig” poster for my upcoming talk at KU Molecular Biosciences. What a cool idea!
February 2019
So awesome to catch up with former lab member Dr. Kenny Lee today! I had the opportunity to talk to his Exploring Medical Careers class at Shawnee Mission East high school about the value of basic research.
January 2019
Congratulations to Devika Salim and Tamara Potopova (featured cover photo) for the recent acceptance of their papers to the journal Chromosome Research.

Ribosomal DNA and the nucleolus in the context of genome organization.

Ribosomal DNA instability and genome adaptability.
January 2019
Gerton Lab predoctoral researcher Wei-Ting Yueh presented an institute-wide talk at the Friday Science Club, "A little goes a long way: Cohesin is required in oocytes for fertility"
December 2018
The Gerton Lab attended a play at the New Theatre Restaurant!
October 2018
The Gerton Lab welcomed Musinu Zukari and Baoshan Xu for a fun return visit!
October 2018
Vijay Pratap Singh, a postdoc in the Gerton Lab, attended the annual Center for Trophoblast Research Conference at the University of Cambridge, UK. Dr. Singh presented a poster on his efforts to understand how the placenta contributes to Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) using mouse models. In November, Dr. Singh presented a talk “Persistent DNA damage in placenta impacts developmental outcomes in mouse cohesinopathy models” in the Translational Research Seminar Series at SIMR. The presentation was in tandem with one from Dr. Isabelle Thiffault, Director of Translational Genomics at Children’s Mercy Hospital, on diagnosis of CdLS in the age of next-gen sequencing. A full audience was there to discuss the urgent need to develop early diagnostic tools for CdLS and other rare diseases. SIMR is proud to be named a Center of Excellence for research on CdLS by the CdLS Foundation.
June 2017
Congratulations to Karthik Dhatchinamoorthy on his successful thesis defense! Pictured here with his committee.
June 2017
Cancer cells may streamline their genomes in order to proliferate more easily

Research from the Stowers Institute provides evidence suggesting that cancer cells might streamline their genomes in order to proliferate more easily. The study, conducted in both human and mouse cells, shows that cancer genomes lose copies of repetitive sequences known as ribosomal DNA.