Zohn Laboratory
About the Lab
More than 100,000 babies are born each year in the United States with structural birth defects requiring special care and interventions to survive. Despite the high incidence of these defects, finding the underlying cause in the majority of cases has been elusive. This is in part due to the complex origins of these birth defects where genetic and environmental factors interact to cause malformations. The complex etiology of birth defects makes identifying the genes involved extremely difficult. Furthermore, how susceptible genetic backgrounds interact with environmental factors to cause birth defects remains poorly understood.
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Lab Focus Areas
Neural Tube Defects Congenital Heart Defects – Interaction Between Genes and Maternal Nutrient Deficiencies Congenital Heart Defects –The Role of miRNAs in Buffering of Environment Exposures
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Partnerships
Institute for Biomedical Sciences (IBS) Program, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
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Contact
Irene Zohn, Ph.D. Principal Investigator [email protected]
Featured Publications
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Variations in maternal vitamin A intake modifies phenotypes in a mouse model of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome
Yitsege G, Stokes BA Sabatino JA Sugrue KF Banyai G, Paronett EM, Karpinski BA Maynard TM, Lamantia AS, Zohn IE PMCID: PMC7586978 Birth Defects Research 112(16):1194-1208 October (2020) -
Reduced maternal vitamin A status increases the incidence of normal aortic arch variants
Sugrue KF, Zohn IE PMID: 31299141 Genesis 57(7-8):e23326 (2019) -
The ubiquitin ligase Hectd1 promotes retinoic acid signaling required for development of the aortic arch
Sugrue KF, Sarkar AA, Leatherbury L, Zohn IE PMCID: PMC6361158 Dis Model Mech 12(1). pii: dmm036491 January (2019) -
Does the cranial mesenchyme contribute to neural fold elevation during neurulation?
Sarkar AA, Zohn IE PMCID: PMC3473154 Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol 94(10):841-8 (2012) -
Hectd1 regulates intracellular localization and secretion of Hsp90 to control cell behavior of the cranial mesenchyme
Sarkar AA, Zohn IE PMCID: PMC3308699 J. Cell Biol 196(6):789-800 (2012)