Seminar Title: “The power of genomics in the era of Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) genomes”
PBB 131
Wednesday December 3rd, 2025, from 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Dr. Rachel O’Neill is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, the John and Donna Krenicki Professor in Genomics and Personalized Healthcare, and a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. She serves as Director of the Institute for Systems Genomics and Director of the Center for Genome Innovation.
Dr. O’Neill’s research programs in genome biology employ comparative genomics approaches across the tree of life, with a recent focus on de-extinction science. Her research group at the UConn uses molecular, cytogenetic, and computational approaches to study genomic conflict involved in retroelement transcription and centromere function and the role of novel small RNAs in chromosomal and genome stability. Her lab uses a comparative genomics approach encompassing both traditional and non-traditional model systems, including human, non-human primates, rodents, marsupials, and several marine species of relevance to environmental genomics. Her lab is also involved in several international genome sequencing efforts, including human genome resequencing, several wallaby species, the koala, the recently extinct Tasmanian Tiger and the Antarctic salp.
She has over 140 publications and her contributions to the T2T consortium has been honored in the Time Magazine’s “Time100”.
Education & Training
La Trobe University
University of Texas, Austin
For more information, contact: Reena Bokria at rjb07003@uconn.edu