2021 Iowa Section of the AADR Featured Speaker

Dr. Robert Cornell

Robert A. Cornell is professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Iowa. He received his BS from Stanford University, PhD in biochemistry from the University of Washington, and conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. He has been a faculty member at the University of Iowa since 2001. With funding from the NIH, his laboratory group studies gene regulatory networks governing embryonic development, using zebrafish, mouse and cell line models.

Featured Address: Lessons on the Genetic Underpinnings of Cleft Palate From Zebrafish

Orofacial cleft is a common birth defect with a strong genetic underpinning, but only a fraction of the heritable risk for orofacial cleft has been ascribed to specific genes. To help identify these specific gene, we are using zebrafish EVL as a tractable model of human embryonic oral periderm to study a gene associated with both syndromic and non-syndromic OFC, IRF6, which encodes a transcription factor and participates in the transcriptional regulatory network governing development of the oral periderm. A recent study carried out ATAC-seq on EVL isolated from zebrafish embryos identified open-chromatin elements specific to these EVL as candidates for EVL-specific enhancers, and transcription factors binding these enhancers contribute to their transcriptional regulatory network. Additionally, our experiments help deduce the hierarchy of the transcription factors in this network. Together these experiments identify genes that harbor mutations increasing the risk for OFC, which will help sort rare variants identified in exome analyses.