Tuuli Lappalainen has joined Columbia University as an assistant professor in the Department of Systems Biology. Dr. Lappalainen is a specialist in the analysis of RNA sequencing data, with research interests including functional variation in the human genome, population genetic background of variation in the human genome, and interpretation of genome function.

Dr. Lappalainen joins the Department of Systems Biology in co-appointment with the New York Genome Center (NYGC), where she will also serve as a Junior Investigator and Core Member. Based in lower Manhattan, NYGC is a consortium made up primarily of New York-area institutions that is designed to translate promising genomics-based research into new strategies for treating, preventing, and managing disease. This co-appointment with Columbia University — an institutional founding member of the NYGC — will enhance collaboration between the two institutions. (Read an interview with Dr. Lappalainen at the New York Genome Center website.)

Dr. Lappalainen earned her PhD in genetics at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and held appointments as a postdoctoral researcher in at the University of Geneva Medical School, Switzerland and at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the chair of the analysis group for the Genetic European Variation in Health and Disease (Geuvadis) Consortium’s RNA sequencing project, a member of the analysis group for the National Institute of Health’s Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx) project, and a member of the analysis and functional interpretation groups for the 1000 Genomes Project.

Recently, Dr. Lappalainen led an international consortium of investigators to publish a study in Nature connecting genetic variation to functional effects. The researchers performed an integrated genome-wide analysis of lymphoblastoid cell lines of 462 individuals from the 1000 Genomes Project that combined RNA and DNA sequencing data. The project for the first time generated a high-resolution view of how small variants in genomic sequence lead to variation in the transcriptome.

For more information, visit the Lappalainen Lab.