Department of Genetics https://www.med.unc.edu/genetics/ Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:52:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Advancing genetic treatment for pediatric epilepsy https://www.med.unc.edu/genetics/advancing-genetic-treatment-for-pediatric-epilepsy/ Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:52:05 +0000 https://www.med.unc.edu/genetics/?p=16594 Recently promoted to full professor, Erin Heinzen, PharmD, PhD, studies the genetic causes of epilepsy and other neurodevelopmental disorders to develop new therapies for children with severe, drug-resistant seizures.

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Erin Heinzen points at a microscope while a lap assistant looks through the viewer

 

January 7, 2026

Written by Safa Tonuzi, photo by Danny Alexander

Recently promoted to full professor, Erin Heinzen, PharmD, PhD, studies the genetic causes of epilepsy and other neurodevelopmental disorders to develop new therapies for children with severe, drug-resistant seizures.

Erin Heinzen, PharmD, PhD, researcher and professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, studies the genetic causes of epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disorders.

“A major focus of our work is identifying genetic changes that cause individuals to develop seizures,” said Heinzen. “Once we identify these variants, we study how they affect brain development in order to develop better treatments.”

Recently, Heinzen was promoted to full professor in recognition for her contributions to research, teaching, and patient-centered innovation.

“Dr. Heinzen’s internationally recognized research program has significantly advanced our understanding of the genetic and genomic basis of epilepsy disorders, and is driving the development of more precise diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies that will improve the lives of patients,” said Chair of the Division  of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics Craig Lee, PharmD, PhD. “She is a highly regarded thought leader and collaborator in her field, and is an outstanding educator, mentor, and leader within our School and across campus.”

In 2018, Heinzen’s group discovered that genetic variants that cause a person to lose a protein called SLC35A2 leads to seizures that do not respond to any available medication. SLC35A2 encodes a protein that regulates glycosylation––a process that adds sugars to proteins and lipids to regulate their activity.

“Since coming to Carolina in 2020, we have discovered that losing SLC35A2 causes neurons to not grow or fire properly,” she said. “We are now working on discovering ways we can correct these changes to stop people with these genetic variants from continuing to have seizures.”

Heinzen views her promotion to full professor as an opportunity to continue advancing research and improve the lives of patients experiencing debilitating neurological disorders.

Drawing on her background in pharmacy and genetics, Heinzen aims to “come full circle” by using genetic insights to inform treatment development and advance pharmacotherapy for children whose seizures don’t respond to any available medications.

“We are at a very exciting time in history with unprecedented technological advancements that allow us to replace defective genes and correct processes that cause disease,” Heinzen said. “This is going to change how we approach treatment for people suffering from various genetic diseases.”

This article originally appeared in UNC Pharmacy news HERE.

 

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]]> UNC Genetics Welcomes New Assistant Professor Jie Xu, PhD https://www.med.unc.edu/genetics/unc-genetics-welcomes-new-assistant-professor-jie-xu-phd/ Fri, 09 Jan 2026 19:14:00 +0000 https://www.med.unc.edu/genetics/?p=16534 The UNC Department of Genetics is delighted to announce the appointment of Jie Xu, PhD, to the UNC faculty. Dr. Xu joins us as an assistant professor in the Department of Genetics at the UNC School of Medicine and a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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Jie Xu, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genetics

The UNC Department of Genetics is delighted to announce the appointment of Jie Xu, PhD, to the UNC faculty. Dr. Xu joins us as an assistant professor in the Department of Genetics at the UNC School of Medicine and a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Xu comes to UNC from the University of California San Diego, where she was a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Bing Ren’s laboratory. She previously trained at Northwestern University and earned her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from Penn State University.

Dr. Xu will lead an emerging program in cancer genomics and epigenomics. Her research explores the regulatory consequences of cancer genomic structural variations, alterations in the epigenomic landscape and 3D chromatin architecture, and the development of single-cell technologies. She has pioneered Paired-TF, a single-cell method enabling simultaneous profiling of transcription factor binding and RNA expression, and has applied this technology to study molecular aging in the brain. Her work also includes mapping transcription factor networks across cell states and dissecting the roles of structural proteins such as Cohesin and CTCF in neurodifferentiation.

Dr. Xu’s contributions have advanced understanding of enhancer hijacking and chromatin structural alterations in acute myeloid leukemia, as highlighted in her landmark publication in Nature (2022). She has co-developed computational frameworks such as NeoLoopFinder for detecting chromatin interactions induced by structural variants, and her research has appeared in Nature Genetics, Nature Methods, Nature Cell Biology, and Nature Biotechnology.

Her achievements have been recognized with numerous honors, including the Dean’s Graduation Award and Charles W. Hill Graduate Student Award at Penn State, multiple travel and poster awards, and full scholarships for advanced training programs. She has delivered invited oral presentations at major conferences such as the 4D Nucleome Annual Meeting and the American Society of Human Genetics.

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]]> Cracking the Brain’s Code: New Sensor Wraps the Human Mind in 3D Insight https://www.med.unc.edu/genetics/cracking-the-brains-code-new-sensor-wraps-the-human-mind-in-3d-insight/ Fri, 09 Jan 2026 15:34:53 +0000 https://www.med.unc.edu/genetics/?p=16527 A new 3D sensor developed at UNC-Chapel Hill and designed to wrap around miniature brain models could give scientists an unprecedented view into human brain activity, accelerating drug discovery and opening new paths for understanding and treating psychiatric and neurological disorders.

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A new 3D sensor developed at UNC-Chapel Hill and designed to wrap around miniature brain models could give scientists an unprecedented view into human brain activity, accelerating drug discovery and opening new paths for understanding and treating psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Jason Stein and Wubin Bai
January 7, 2026
By Brock Pierce, Innovate Carolina
Photography by Brock Pierce, Innovate Carolina

Peek inside a laboratory at the UNC Neuroscience Center and you might spot what looks like a collection of tiny white beads spinning in a container of red-tinted liquid. No larger than small peas or pencil erasers, these objects, in fact, aren’t beads at all. They’re brain organoids, three-dimensional balls of living human neurons—like mini brains in a dish. Grown from human cells, they’re one of the only ways scientists have to study living neural activity. But the novelty underway in Chapel Hill isn’t just growing brain organoids themselves. It’s a new sensor technology that is specially designed to work with the organoids and which may hold a key to transforming how scientists record neural activity. If successful, the sensor is poised to become a commercial product that enables speedier brain research, faster drug discovery and more precise treatments for neurological and psychi