Elizabeth A Mason 39th Annual Lorne Genome Conference 2018

Elizabeth A Mason

Lizzi began her career in human genomics as a laboratory manager and laboratory technician with Professor Greg Gibson (Centre for Integrative Genomics, Georgia Tech University). She conducted 2 investigations in Australia which identified maternal influences on development of the neonate immune system, and uncovered population structure of the leukocyte transcriptome. Together with scientists at Emory University, Greg and Lizzi initiated the CIG’s involvement in the WHOLE (Wellness and Health Omics Linked to the Environment) study of Predictive Health Genomics in Atlanta (USA) which is currently in its 6th year. Lizzi has recently completed a PhD in systems biology of human stem cells at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at the University of Queensland. Her PhD project formed an international collaboration with Professor Christine Wells (University of Melbourne AUS), stem cell biologists Professors Martin Pera (Jackson Laboratory USA) and Ernst Wolvetang (University of Queensland AUS), biostatistician Assistant Professor Jessica Mar (Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA) and computational biologist Professor John Quackenbush (Harvard University, USA). Her primary focus is evaluating whether molecular variability in stem cell populations describes an important, but until now hidden predictor of cellular behaviour and phenotype. Phenotypic heterogeneity in clonally derived cell populations is ubiquitous, and biologically relevant information is often masked by using population-averaging techniques, versus individual cell based measurements. She has developed new network approaches which incorporate gene expression variance, with the goal of identifying genetic elements which stabilize a cell phenotype, and push a cell to transition between phenotypes. During her PhD Lizzi has been invited to present her work in departmental seminars at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the Lieber Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and the Black Family Stem Cell Institute at Mt Sainai Hospital New York. She was also one of 12 international scientists who were invited to participate in the Radcliffe Exploratory Workshop for Variation at Harvard University in 2011. She is currently based with Professor Christine Wells in the Centre for Stem Cell Systems at the University of Melbourne, where she is working on applied statistical methods to evaluate molecular variability in single cell RNA-seq data.