Austin Hepperla

Austin Hepperla, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. He holds roles in the UNC Neuroscience Bioinformatics Core and the Bioinformatics and Analytics Research Collaborative (BARC) core, focusing on designing and analyzing genomic studies. His research integrates epigenetics, transcriptomics, and bioinformatics to study disease mechanisms, including cancers (e.g., renal cell carcinoma, lung cancer) and congenital disorders like fetal alcohol syndrome. Collaborative work spans UNC’s Lineberger Cancer Center, Neuroscience Center, and The Cancer Genome Atlas consortium.

Education: PhD from the GMB Curriculum and a Certificate in BCB (Bioinformatics and Computational Biology) from UNC, awarded in 2020.

Research Interests: He specializes in high-throughput sequencing technologies to uncover disease-related epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms. Key areas include cancer biology, genomic instability, and the interplay between chromatin dynamics and disease progression. His work bridges basic science and clinical applications through bioinformatics tools and collaborative studies.

Publications: Over 15 peer-reviewed articles since 2020, focusing on topics like STING pathway function in renal cancer, histone modifiers in cardiac development, and epigenetic regulation in tumor suppression. Recent work includes studies on 2'3'-cGAMP signaling and VHL-mediated m6A regulation in renal tumors.

Labs/Teams: Leads initiatives at the Neuroscience Bioinformatics Core and BARC, training emerging bioinformaticians. Actively collaborates with multi-institutional teams to advance genomic medicine.