Erica Larschan

Erica Larschan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry at Brown University. Her research focuses on coordinate gene regulation, particularly using Drosophila dosage compensation as a model system to study how genes are identified for co-regulation. She combines genomics, genetics, and computational biology to address how global and gene-specific transcriptional regulatory signals integrate.

• Honors and Awards: Pew Biomedical Scholar (2011), Ellison Foundation New Scholar (2011) (declined), NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship (2004) (declined), American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship (2004) (declined), Leukemia and Lymphoma Postdoctoral Fellow (2004), Medical Foundation Charles A. King Trust Postdoctoral Fellow (2008), and multiple undergraduate scholarships including the National Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (1998).

Research Interests: Dr. Larschan’s work explores chromatin structure, epigenetics, and transcriptional mechanisms in Drosophila, with a focus on the CLAMP protein and its role in dosage compensation. Her innovative approaches include developing tools like TIMEOR for multi-omics analysis and studying sex-specific aging differences. Current projects examine histone acetylation targeting, chromatin accessibility, and subnuclear domain formation.

• Funded Research:
  • Pew Biomedical Scholars program (2011-2015, $220,812, PI)
  • NIH R01 GM098461-1 (2011-2016, $1,250,000, PI)
  • Brown ADVANCE Grant (NSF HRD-0548311, 2010-2011, $15,000, PI)
  • RI-INBRE NIH Seed Award (P20RR016457-10, 2010-2011, $30,000, PI)
  • Brown Salomon Award (2011-2012, $15,000, PI)
  • Rhode Island Foundation Research Grant (2011-2012, $15,000, PI)
  • American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant (Pending: 2012-2016, $600,000, PI)

Teaching: Courses include BIOL 0470 - Genetics, BIOL 1222A - Current Topics in Functional Genomics, BIOL 1540 - Molecular Genetics, and seminars on transcription and chromatin. She also serves as Director of Graduate Study in the Computational Biology Graduate Program.