Eirene Markenscoff-Papadimitriou

Eirene Markenscoff-Papadimitriou is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). Her research focuses on gene-regulatory mechanisms in brain development, particularly how chromatin regulation and genetic variants contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. She employs transgenic mice and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons to model developmental processes. Key areas include autism-associated genes, epigenetic mechanisms, and the functional impact of genetic variants.

Education: BA from Harvard University; PhD from University of California, San Francisco. Honors include the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award (2024) and SFARI Bridge to Independence Fellowship (2022).

Research interests emphasize chromatin accessibility, synaptic gene expression, and the interplay between gene networks and neurodevelopmental disorders. Her lab uses cutting-edge techniques like spatial transcriptomics and epigenomics to study neuronal diversity. Recent work explores how non-coding RNA variants and human accelerated regions influence brain evolution and disease.

Contact: Located in 249 Biotechnology Building, Ithaca, NY. Lab: Papadimitriou Lab (ecm253@cornell.edu), actively recruiting graduate students and postdocs. Open projects involve neurodevelopmental mechanisms, epigenetic regulation, and translational therapies for psychiatric disorders.