Romy Kursawe, Ph.D.

Research Assistant IV

Try to understand how genetic variation in non-coding, regulatory DNA sequences alter islet gene expression to contribute to islet dysfunction and type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Visit The Stitzel Lab

After working at Yale for seven years studying type 2 diabetes in obese adolescents, I came to JAX in 2014 to join the Stitzel lab. Using a broad spectrum of genetic and epigenetic techniques (e.g., ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, ChIA-PET, ATAC-seq) to study the epigenome of human islets and rodent beta-cell lines we are able to identify “stretch”enhancers involved in type 2 diabetes. By breaking them using CRISPR-Cas9 we will investigate altered gene expression and insulin signaling to understand their function.

Selected Publications

0 Li J, Zhu J, Deng Y, Reck EC, Walker EM, Sidarala V, Hubers DL, Pasmooij MB, Shin CS, Bandesh K, Motakis E, Nargund S, Kursawe R, Basrur V, Nesvizhskii AI, Stitzel ML, Chan DC, Soleimanpour SA. LONP1 regulation of mitochondrial protein folding provides insight into beta cell failure in type 2 diabetes. bioRxiv. 2024 Jun 3
74 Tyler AL, Spruce C, Kursawe R, Haber A, Ball RL, Pitman WA, Fine AD, Raghupathy N, Walker M, Philip VM, Baker CL, Mahoney JM, Churchill GA, Trowbridge JJ, Stitzel ML, Paigen K, Petkov PM, Carter GW. Variation in histone configurations correlates with gene expression across nine inbred strains of mice. Genome Res. 2023 Jun; 33(6):857-871
102 Khetan S, Kales S, Kursawe R, Jillette A, Ulirsch JC, Reilly SK, Ucar D, Tewhey R, Stitzel ML. Functional characterization of T2D-associated SNP effects on baseline and ER stress-responsive β cell transcriptional activation. Nat Commun. 2021 Sep 2; 12(1):5242
27 Thibodeau A, Eroglu A, McGinnis CS, Lawlor N, Nehar-Belaid D, Kursawe R, Marches R, Conrad DN, Kuchel GA, Gartner ZJ, Banchereau J, Stitzel ML, Cicek AE, Ucar D. AMULET: a novel read count-based method for effective multiplet detection from single nucleus ATAC-seq data. Genome Biol. 2021 Sep 1; 22(1):252
64 Rui J, Deng S, Perdigoto AL, Ponath G, Kursawe R, Lawlor N, Sumida T, Levine-Ritterman M, Stitzel ML, Pitt D, Lu J, Herold KC. Tet2 Controls the Responses of β cells to Inflammation in Autoimmune Diabetes. Nat Commun. 2021 Aug 20; 12(1):5074
97 Lawlor N, Márquez EJ, Orchard P, Narisu N, Shamim MS, Thibodeau A, Varshney A, Kursawe R, Erdos MR, Kanke M, Gu H, Pak E, Dutra A, Russell S, Li X, Piecuch E, Luo O, Chines PS, Fuchbserger C, NIH Intramural Sequencing Center, Sethupathy P, Aiden AP, Ruan Y, Aiden EL, Collins FS, Ucar D, Parker SCJ, Stitzel ML. Multiomic Profiling Identifies cis-Regulatory Networks Underlying Human Pancreatic β Cell Identity and Function. Cell Rep. 2019 Jan 15; 26(3):788-801.e6
55 Khetan S, Kursawe R, Youn A, Lawlor N, Jillette A, Marquez EJ, Ucar D, Stitzel ML. Type 2 Diabetes-Associated Genetic Variants Regulate Chromatin Accessibility in Human Islets. Diabetes. 2018 Nov; 67(11):2466-2477
78 Kycia I, Wolford BN, Huyghe JR, Fuchsberger C, Vadlamudi S, Kursawe R, Welch RP, Albanus RD, Uyar A, Khetan S, Lawlor N, Bolisetty M, Mathur A, Kuusisto J, Laakso M, Ucar D, Mohlke KL, Boehnke M, Collins FS, Parker SCJ, Stitzel ML. A Common Type 2 Diabetes Risk Variant Potentiates Activity of an Evolutionarily Conserved Islet Stretch Enhancer and Increases C2CD4A and C2CD4B Expression. Am J Hum Genet. 2018 Apr 5; 102(4):620-635
114 Lawlor N, Youn A, Kursawe R, Ucar D, Stitzel ML. Alpha TC1 and Beta-TC-6 genomic profiling uncovers both shared and distinct transcriptional regulatory features with their primary islet counterparts. Sci Rep. 2017 Sep 20; 7(1):11959
50 Roman TS, Cannon ME, Vadlamudi S, Buchkovich ML, Wolford BN, Welch RP, Morken MA, Kwon GJ, Varshney A, Kursawe R, Wu Y, Jackson AU, National Institutes of Health Intramural Sequencing Center (NISC) Comparative Sequencing Program, Erdos MR, Kuusisto J, Laakso M, Scott LJ, Boehnke M, Collins FS, Parker SCJ, Stitzel ML, Mohlke KL. A Type 2 Diabetes-Associated Functional Regulatory Variant in a Pancreatic Islet Enhancer at the ADCY5 Locus. Diabetes. 2017 Sep; 66(9):2521-2530
56 Varshney A, Scott LJ, Welch RP, Erdos MR, Chines PS, Narisu N, Albanus RD, Orchard P, Wolford BN, Kursawe R, Vadlamudi S, Cannon ME, Didion JP, Hensley J, Kirilusha A, NISC Comparative Sequencing Program, Bonnycastle LL, Taylor DL, Watanabe R, Mohlke KL, Boehnke M, Collins FS, Parker SC, Stitzel ML. Genetic regulatory signatures underlying islet gene expression and type 2 diabetes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Feb 28; 114(9):2301-2306
105 Lawlor N, George J, Bolisetty M, Kursawe R, Sun L, Sivakamasundari V, Kycia I, Robson P, Stitzel ML. Single-cell transcriptomes identify human islet cell signatures and reveal cell-type-specific expression changes in type 2 diabetes. Genome Res. 2017 Feb; 27(2):208-222

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Romy Kursawe, Ph.D.

Research Assistant IV

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Selected Publications