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Penelope Bonnen
Baylor College of MedicineDepartment: Department of Molecular & Human GeneticsAddress: One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX, 77030 Phone: 713-798-4256 Fax: 713-798-5741 Email: pbonnen@bcm.edu Web: www.bcm.edu/genetics/?pmid=10590 |
Education
Texas A&M University, (1993)
Baylor College of Medicine, (2002)
Honors
2005 Rockefeller University Women & Science Fellowship
2000 Best Poster, 3rd International Meeting on SNP and Complex Genome Analysis
1998 W.M. Keck Center for Computational Biology Fellowship
1991 Houston Hellenic Professional Society Scholarship
1990 Texas A&M University Regents Fellowship
1990 Houston AHEPA Scholarship
1989 Texas A&M University Opportunity Award Scholarship
1989 Dow Science and Technology Scholarship
Research Topic
Molecular and Human Genetics
Research Description
The intersection of genomics, population genetics, and disease
Our research objective is to understand how events in human history shape our genomic landscape and contribute to phenotypic diversity. Ever increasing amounts of sequence and SNP data have facilitated better characterization of the architecture of the human genome. Demographic and population genetic events, such as admixture, population bottleneck, and natural selection have left distinct signatures on our present day genomes. Characterization of these features of the genomic landscape is in its infancy. I seek to gain a better understanding of these features and exploit them to map loci that confer susceptibility to and protection from disease, particularly infectious and metabolic disease.
Infectious disease genetics: Host susceptibility and the genetics of pathogenicity
Occurrence of infectious disease is determined by a variety of factors that are contributed by both the host and the pathogen. Human genetic susceptibility to infectious disease is well-documented for some viral pathogens, like HIV, and is suspected for bacterial pathogens. Likewise, genetics plays a role in determining the virulence and disease specificity of bacterial pathogens. Our research program explores three foundational elements that are central to understanding the occurrence and spread of infectious disease: genetic contribution to host susceptibility, the genetic determinants of bacterial pathogenicity, and the role of commensal microbiota.
Utilizing population genetics to identify genes contributing to Metabolic Syndrome
The “Thrifty gene hypothesis” asserts that the ability to store energy may have been a selective advantage for human populations living through cycles of nutritional privation. It follows that this evolutionary adaptation could also confer susceptibility to obesity for these populations when no longer subjected to periods of privation. Pacific islanders are one such population who existed historically as hunter-gatherers, but who now have a Western diet and live a more sedentary life-style resulting in high rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension (Metabolic Syndrome). I study a population of individuals from the Pacific Island of Kosrae who suffer from high rates of metabolic disease. Projects include mitochondrial genetic contribution to metabolic disease, testing the “thrifty gene hypothesis” by examining the autosomal genome for signs of selection, GWAS for iron-overload genes, and utilizing mitochondria and Y chromosome markers to decipher the peopling of Micronesia.
Selected Publications
- Bonnen, P.E., Lowe, J.K., Altshuler, D., Breslow, J.L., M., Stoffel, M., J.M. Friedman, and I Peʼer. European admixture on the Micronesian island of Kosrae - lessons from complete genetic information. (accepted EurJHumGen).
- Daniel, A., Bonnen, P.E., and V.A. Fischetti. 2007. First complete genome sequence of two Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteriophages. J Bacteriol 189(5):2086-100.
- Bonnen, P.E., Peʼer, I., Plenge, R.M., Salit, J., Lowe, J.K., Shapero, M.H., Lifton, R.P., Breslow, J.L., M., Daly, M.J., Reich, D.E., Jones, K.W., Stoffel, M., Altshuler, D., and J.M. Friedman. 2006. Evaluating potential for whole-genome studies in Kosrae, an isolated population in Micronesia. Nat Genet 38(2):214-7.
- Bonnen, P.E. and D.L. Nelson. 2004. SNPs and Functional Polymorphisms in Cancer, Oncogenomics: Molecular Approaches to Cancer. Edited by Charles Brenner and David J. Duggan, Wiley Inc.
- Renwick, A., Bonnen, P., Trikka, D., Nelson, D.L., Chakraborty, R., and M. Kimmel. 2003. Sampling properties of estimators of nucleotide diversity at discovered SNP sites. Int J Appl Math and Comput Sci 13(3):385-394.
- Bonnen, P.E., Wang, P., and D.L. Nelson. 2002. Haplotype and linkage disequilibrium architecture for human cancer-associated genes. Genome Res 12(12):1846-53.
- Aradhya, S., Woffendin, H., Bonnen, P., Heiss, N., Yamagata, T., Esposito, T., Bardaro, T., Poustka, A., DʼUrso, M., Kenwrick, S., and D.L. Nelson. 2002. Physical and genetic characterization reveals a pseudogene, and evolutionary junction, and unstable loci in distal Xq28. Genomics 79(1):31-40.
- Bonnen, P.E., Story, M.D., Ashorn, C.L. , Buchholz, T.A., Weil, M.M., and D.L. Nelson. 2000. Haplotypes at ATM identify coding sequence variation and indicate a region of extensive linkage disequilibrium. Am J Hum Genet 67(6):1437-51.
- Zhuchenko, O., Bailey, J., Bonnen, P., Ashizawa, T., Stockton, D., Amos, C., Dobyns, W., Subramony, S.H., Zoghbi, H., and C.C Lee. 1997. Autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxia (SCA6) associated with small polyglutamine expansion in the alpha 1A-voltage-dependent calcium channel. Nat Genet 15, 62-69.
Lab Members
Lab Photos
Last edited on: September 22, 2009