The Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics engages in cutting-edge research, training and teaching to solve basic questions in the life sciences and to apply biological knowledge to critical medical, agricultural and environmental problems. Our goal is to inspire the next generation of scientists, teachers and communicators by providing research mentorship and classroom instruction in biochemistry, bioinformatics, cell biology, genetics and molecular biology and by initiating and participating in collaborative research across the Cornell campuses.

The explosion of genome-scale data over the last decade offers unprecedented opportunities to understand fundamental principles of biology and to apply biological knowledge to critical medical, agricultural and environmental problems. Every day, faculty in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBG) engage in cutting-edge research, training and teaching to advance scientific discovery and answer basic questions in the life sciences. MBG faculty and students continuously deliver the highest standard of research because of their demonstrated excellence in linking genomes to gene and protein function in the context of cells, tissues, organisms, and the environment.

Our goal is to inspire and train the next generation of scientists, teachers and communicators by providing research mentorship and classroom instruction in biochemistry, bioinformatics, cell biology, genetics, molecular biology and related disciplines and by initiating and participating in collaborative research across the Cornell campuses.

Department website

Stephane Bentolila

Associate Research Professor

Frank Pugh

Greater Philadelphia Professor of Molecular Biology & Genetics

Publications

  1. Gallego LD, Schneider M, Mittal C, Polyansky AA, Romanauska A, Gudino-Carillo RM, Schubert T, Zagrovic B, Pugh, BF, Kohler, A. (2020) Liquid-liquid phase separation directs ubiquitination of gene body nucleosomes. Nature 579, 592-597. PMID: 32214243
  2. Rossi MJ, Lai WKM, Pugh BF. (2018) Simplified ChIP-exo assays. Nat Commun. 9:2842-54.  PMID: 30030442
  3. Lai, W. K. & Pugh, B. F. (2017). Genome-wide uniformity of human ‘open’ pre-initiation complexes. Genome Res 27, 15-26PMID: 27927716
  4. Rhee, H-S., Bataille, A. R., Zhang, L., and Pugh, B.F. (2014) Subnucleosomal Structures and Nucleosome Asymmetry Across a Genome. Cell 159, 1377-1388. PMID: 25480300

William Lai

Assistant Research Professor

Ailong Ke

Professor

Mariana Federica Wolfner

Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow

David B. Wilson

Professor

Tudorita Tumbar

Professor

Marcus Smolka

Professor

David I Shalloway

Greater Philadelphia Professor of Biological Sciences

John Schimenti

Professor

Publications

  • Philipps, D., Wigglesworth, K., Hartford, S., Sun, F., Pattabiraman, S., Schimenti, K., Handel, M.A., Eppig, J.J. and Schimenti, J. (2008) The dual bromodomain and WD repeat-containing mouse protein BRWD1 is required for normal spermiogenesis and the oocyte-embryo transition. Devel Biol 317:72-82
  • Ward, J., Reinholdt, L., Motley, W., Niswander, L., Deacon, D., Griffin, L., Langlais, K., Backus, V., Schimenti, K., O’Brien, M., Eppig, J. and Schimenti, J. (2007) Mutation in mouse Hei10, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, disrupts meiotic crossing-over. PloS Genetics 3: e139.
  • Li, X. and Schimenti, J. Mouse Pachytene Checkpoint 2 (Trip13) is required for completing meiotic recombination but not synapsis. (2007) PLoS Genetics 3:e130.
  • Harris, T., Marquez, B., Suarez, S. and Schimenti, J. (2007) Sperm motility defects and infertility in male mice with a mutation in Nsun7, a member of the SUN domain-containing family of putative RNA methyltransferases. Biol. Reprod. 77: 376-382. Shima, N., Buske, T. and Schimenti, J. (2007) Genetic screen for chromosomal instability in mice: Mcm4 and breast cancer. Cell Cycle 6: 1135-1140.
  • Bannister, L., Pezza, R., Donaldson, J., de Rooij, D., Schimenti, K., Camerini-Otero, D. and Schimenti, J. (2007) Male-specific sterility in mice carrying a dominant, recombination-defective allele of the RecA homolog Dmc1. PLoS Biology 5:e105.
  • Howell, G., Shindo, M., Murray, S., Gridley, T. Wilson, L. and Schimenti, J. (2007) Mutation of an ubiquitously-expressed mouse transmembrane protein (Tapt1) causes specific skeletal homeotic transformations. Genetics 175:699-707.
  • Shima, N., Alcaraz, A., Liachko, I., Buske, T., Andrews, C., Munroe, R., Hartford, S., Tye, B., and Schimenti, J. (2007) A viable mutation of Mcm4Nature Genetics causes genomic instability and mammary adenocarcinoma in mice. 19: 93-98.
  • Lessard, C., Lothrop, H., Schimenti, J. and Handel, M.A. (2007) Mutagenesis-generated mouse models of human infertility with abnormal sperm. Human Reproduction, 22: 159-166.
  • Reinholdt, L., Munroe, R., Kamdar, S. and Schimenti, J. (2006) The mouse gcd2 mutation causes primordial germ cell depletion. Mechanisms of Development 123: 559-569.
  • Zan, H., Shima, N., Wu, Z., Al-Qahtani, A., Evinger, A., Zhong, Y., Schimenti , J. and Casali, P. (2005) The translesion DNA Polymerase Theta plays a dominant role in immunoglobulin gene somatic hypermutation. EMBO 24: 3757-59.
  • Wilson, L, Ching, Y., Farias, M., Hartford, S., Howell, G., Shao, H., Bucan, M. and Schimenti, J. (2005) ENU mutagenesis of proximal mouse Chromosome 5 uncovers predominantly embryonic lethal mutations. Genome Research. 15:1095-1105.
  • Reinholdt, L. and Schimenti, J. (2005) Mei1 is epistatic to Dmc1 in mouse meiosis. Chromosoma, 114: 127-134.
  • Schimenti, J., Reynolds, J. and Planchart, A. (2005) Mutations in Serac1 or Synj2 cause proximal t haplotype –mediated male mouse sterility, but not transmission ratio distortion. PNAS 102: 3342-3347.
  • Bannister , L, Reinholdt, L. Munroe, R. and Schimenti, J. (2004) Positional cloning and characterization of mouse mei8, a disrupted allele of the meiotic cohesin Rec8. Genesis, 40: 184-194. (Cover).
  • Shima, N. Munroe, R. and Schimenti, J. (2004) The mouse genomic instability mutation chaos1 is an allele of Polq that exhibits genetic interaction with Atm. Mol. Cell. Biol. 24: 10381-9.
  • Libby, B., Reinholdt, L., and Schimenti, J. (2003) Positional cloning and characterization of Mei1, a novel, vertebrate-specific gene required for normal meiotic chromosome synapsis in mice. PNAS, 100: 15706-15711.
  • Ward, J., Reinholdt, L., Hartford, S., Wilson, L., Munroe, R., Schimenti, K., Libby, B., O’Brien, M., Pendola, J., Eppig, J. and Schimenti, J. (2003) Towards the genetics of mammalian reproduction: induction and mapping of gametogenesis mutants in mice. Biology of Reproduction, 69, 1615-25.
  • Shima, N., Hartford, S., Duffy, T., Wilson, L., Schimenti, K. and Schimenti, J. (2003) Phenotype based identification of mouse chromosome instability mutants. Genetics, 163:1031-1040.
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