Meru J. Sadhu, Ph.D.

Investigator

Genetic Disease Research Branch

NHGRI

Building 49, Room 4A82
49 Convent Drive
Bethesda, MD 20892

301-827-6362

meru.sadhu@nih.gov

Research Topics

The Systems Biology and Genome Engineering Section's goal is to systematically understand the phenotypic consequences of genetic differences. By studying the functional effects of genetic diversity, such as natural variation between individuals or between species, or novel genetic changes that we create, section researchers work to understand the principles linking genetic and phenotypic variation. As the space of potential genetic variants is immense, the section devises strategies to study large numbers of genetic differences in parallel. These strategies leverage the strengths of CRISPR technologies, large-scale oligonucleotide synthesis, the power of the yeast model system, and high-throughput phenotyping and genotyping to generate and study the effects of thousands of unique genetic variants. In addition to applying existing genome engineering methods, the section aims to further expand the reach of genomics by developing new and powerful approaches to study genetic diversity.

Selected Publications

  1. Weller CA, Andreev I, Chambers MJ, Park M, NISC Comparative Sequencing Program, Bloom JS, Sadhu MJ. Highly complete long-read genomes reveal pangenomic variation underlying yeast phenotypic diversity. Genome Res. 2023;33(5):729-740.
  2. Andreev I, Laidlaw KME, Giovanetti SM, Urtecho G, Shriner D, Bloom JS, MacDonald C, Sadhu MJ. Discovery of a rapidly evolving yeast defense factor, KTD1, against the secreted killer toxin K28. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023;120(8):e2217194120.
  3. Schubert OT, Bloom JS, Sadhu MJ, Kruglyak L. Genome-wide base editor screen identifies regulators of protein abundance in yeast. Elife. 2022;11.
  4. Boocock J, Sadhu MJ, Durvasula A, Bloom JS, Kruglyak L. Ancient balancing selection maintains incompatible versions of the galactose pathway in yeast. Science. 2021;371(6527):415-419.
  5. Bloom JS, Boocock J, Treusch S, Sadhu MJ, Day L, Oates-Barker H, Kruglyak L. Rare variants contribute disproportionately to quantitative trait variation in yeast. Elife. 2019;8.

Related Scientific Focus Areas

This page was last updated on Friday, August 25, 2023