Academic Appointments
- Assistant Professor of Pathology & Cell Biology
Email: ac4304@cumc.columbia.edu
Our research group strives to push the boundaries of genetic engineering by developing new methods with which to modify and regulate eukaryotic genomes. We apply these tools ourselves or through collaboration to gain fundamental biological insights with a particular focus towards understanding neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
Our work employs a variety of techniques ranging from oligo chip synthesis and library-based screening to iPS cell differentiation and live-cell imaging. We utilize a variety of model systems ranging from yeast to human cell culture to assure that the technologies we generate are applicable to a broad swath of the scientific community.
Our team places a strong emphasis on mentoring, and values the opportunity to be able to train the next generation of budding scientists.
Departmental Appointments
- Department of Pathology & Cell Biology
Areas of Expertise
- Pathology
Languages Spoken
- Spanish
Education and Training
- BA, 2004 Genetics and Molecular Biology, Northwestern University
- MD, PhD, 2011 Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Pennsylvania - School of Medicine
- Residency: 2014 Massachuetts General Hospital
- Fellowship: 2017 Massachusettes General Hospital
Locations
- 630 West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032- Phone:
- (212) 305-1150
Provider Affiliations
- NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia
This provider does not accept new patients
Links
Patents
Church, G.M., Vora, S., Chavez, A., Chen, J., Pruitt, B. 2017. Methods of Modulating Expression of Target Nucleic Acid Sequences in a Cell. U.S. Patent Application 62/470,538, filed March 13, 2017. Patent Pending
Guo, X., Kaas, C., and Chavez, A. 2016. Methods of genetically altering yeast to produce yeast variants. U.S. Patent Application 62/396,395, filed September 19, 2016. Patent Pending
Kaas, C., and Chavez, A. 2016. Methods for screening using barcoded libraries. U.S. Patent Application 62/358,878, filed July 6, 2016. Patent Pending
Guo, X., Chavez, A., Schubert, M., and Kelsic E. 2016. Library-scale engineering of metabolic pathways. U.S. Patent Application 62/348,438, filed June 10, 2016. Patent Pending
Esvelt, K.M., Min, J., Noble, C.M., Buchthal, J., Chavez, A. 2016. Methods to design and use gene drives. U.S. Patent Application 62/333,580, filed May 9, 2016. Patent Pending
Chavez, A. 2016. Mutant cas proteins. U.S. Patent Application 62/310,018, filed March 18, 2016. Patent Pending
Chavez, A., and Pruitt, B.W., 2015. Cas discrimination using tuned guide RNA. U.S. Patent Application 62/266,851, filed December 14, 2015. Patent Pending
Hu, J., and Chavez, A., 2015. Methods of making guide RNA. U.S. Patent Application 62/220,524, filed September 19, 2015. Patent Pending
Chavez, A., and Tuttle, M., 2015. Cas9 genome editing and transcriptional regulation. U.S. Patent Application 62/200,303, filed August 3, 2015. Patent Pending.
Chavez, A., Poelwijk F., and Church G.M., 2013. Mutant Cas9 proteins. U.S. Patent 9,074,199, granted July 7, 2015
Committees / Societies / Memberships
Member of Scientific Advisory Board, Addgene, Cambridge MA
Ad-hoc Reviewer for: Nature Communications, Nucleic Acid Research, ACS Synthetic Biology, Genome Biology
Honors and Awards
Recipient of 2017-2021 Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientist
02/2017 - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) Tony B. Academic Travel Award
06/2016 - Poster of Distinction, Harvard Medical School Pathology Annual Retreat
2012 & 2013 - 1st place, Massachusetts General Hospital, Best Clinical Pathology Conference Talk
2013 - Chief Resident, Clinical Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital
06/2011 - Morton McCutcheon Memorial Prize for meritorious laboratory research, UPenn
Research Interests
- Genome Engineering
- Genomics
- Synthetic Biology
- Neurodegeneration
- Cancer
- COVID-19
NIH Grants
IDENTIFYING ALS THERAPEUTICS THROUGH MULTIPLEXED DRUG DISCOVERY TECHNOLOGIES (Private)
Sep 1 2019 - Aug 31 2022
NOVEL TECHNOLOGIES AND THEIR APPLICATION TO NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES (Private)
Sep 1 2017 - Aug 31 2022
IDENTIFYING ALS THERAPEUTICS THROUGH MULTIPLEXED DRUG DISCOVERY TECHNOLOGIES (Federal Gov)
Apr 1 2020 - Mar 31 2022
A MULTIMODAL ORAL NON-VIRAL CRISPR-CAS MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURE TO ENHANCE IONIZING RADIATION RESILIENCE AND SURVIVAL (Federal Gov)
Jan 1 2019 - Mar 31 2022
HIGH-THROUGHPUT DISEASE MODELING TO UNCOVER SHARED AND UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS AMONG NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES (Federal Gov)
Sep 15 2019 - Aug 31 2021
A MULTIMODAL ORAL NON-VIRAL CRISPR-CAS MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURE TO ENHANCE IONIZING RADIATION RESILIENCE AND SURVIVAL (Federal Gov)
Jan 1 2019 - Mar 31 2021
SINGLE EXOSOME SEQUENCING (SESEQ) FOR REAL-TIME CANCER DIAGNOSTICS (Private)
Jan 3 2019 - Dec 31 2020
Clinical Trials
COVID-19 STUDIES - Recruiting people who have recovered from COVID-19 (Coronavirus) to donate convalescent plasma.
Publications
# denotes co-first author
^ denotes co-second author
* denotes co-senior author
#Guo, X., *#Chavez, A., #Tung, A., Chan, Y., Kaas, C., Yin, Y., Cecchi, R., Garnier, S.L., Kelsic, E.D., Schubert, M., DiCarlo, J.E., Collins, J.J., *Church, G.M., High-throughput creation and functional profiling of DNA sequence variant libraries using CRISPR–Cas9 in yeast. Nature Biotechnology. 2018; doi:10.1038/nbt.4147.
Chan, Y., Chan, Y.K., Goodman, D.B., Guo, X., Chavez, A., Lim, E.T., Church, G.M., Enabling multiplexed testing of pooled donor cells through whole-genome sequencing. Genome medicine 10 (1), 31.
Bester, A.C., ^Lee, J.D., ^Chavez, A., Lee, Y-R., Nachmani, D., Vora, S., Victor, J., Sauvageau, M., Monteleone, E., Rinn, J.L., Provero, P., Church, G.M., Clohessy, J.G., Pandolfi, P.P. An Integrated Genome Wide CRISPRa Approach to Functionalize lncRNAs in Drug Resistance. Cell. 2018; 173 (3), 649-664. e20
*#Chavez, A., #Pruitt, B.W., Tuttle, M., Shapiro, R.S., Cecchi, R.J., Winston, J., Turczyk, B.M., Tung, M., Collins, J.J., and Church, G.M*. Precise Cas9 targeting enables genomic mutation prevention. PNAS. 2018; doi: 10.1073/pnas.1718148115.
Shapiro, R.S., Chavez, A., Collins, J.J. CRISPR technologies: a toolkit for making genetically intractable microbes tractable. Nature Reviews Microbiology. 2018; doi:10.1038/s41579-018-0002-7
#Shapiro, R.S., #Chavez, A., Porter, C.B.M., Hamblin, M., Kaas, C.S., DiCarlo, J.E., Zeng, G., Xu, X., Revtovich, A.V., Kirienko, N.V., Wang, Y., *Church, G.M., and *Collins, J.J. A CRISPR Cas9-based gene drive platform for genetic interaction analysis in Candida albicans. Nature Microbiology. 2017; doi: 10.1038/s41564-017-0043-0.
Chari, R., Yeo, N.C., Chavez, A., Church, G.M. sgRNA Scorer 2.0: A Species-Independent Model To Predict CRISPR/Cas9 Activity. ACS Synthetic Biology. 2017; 6:902-90: NIHMS: 857197
Rock, J.M., Hopkins, F.F., Chavez, A., Diallo, M., Gerrick, E.R., Prichard, J.R., Church, G.M., Rubin, E.J., Sassetti, C.M., Schnappinger, D., and Fortune, S.M. Programmable transcriptional repression in mycobacteria using an orthogonal CRISPR interference platform. Nature Microbiology. 2016; 2:16274: PMCID: PMC5302332
*#Chavez, A., #Pruitt, B.W., Tuttle, M., Shapiro, R.S., Cecchi, R.J., Winston, J., Turczyk, B.M., Tung, M., Collins, J.J., and Church, G.M*. Precise Cas9 targeting enables genomic mutation prevention. bioRxiv. 2016
Nobel, C., Min, J., Olejarz, J., Buchthal, J., Chavez, A., Smidler, A.L., DeBenedictis, E.A., Church, G.M., Nowak, M.A., and Esvelt, K.M. Daisy-chain gene drives for the alteration of local populations. bioRxiv. 2016
#Chavez, A., #Tuttle, M., Pruitt, B.W., Ewen-Campen, B., Chari, R., Ter-Ovanesyan, D., Haque, S.J., Cecchi, R.J., Kowal, E.J., Buchthal, J., Housden, B.E., Perrimon, N., Collins, J.J., and Church, G. Comparison of Cas9 activators in multiple species. Nature Methods. 2016; 13:563-567: PMCID: PMC4927356
#Kiani, S., #Chavez, A., Tuttle, M., Hall, R.N., Chari, R., Ter-Ovanesyan, D., Qian, J., Pruitt, B.W., Beal, J., Vora, S., Buchthal, J., Kowal, E.J., Ebrahimkhani, M.R., Collins, J.J., Weiss, R., Church., G. Cas9 gRNA engineering for genome editing, activation and repression. Nature Methods. 2015; 12:1051-1054: PMCID: PMC4666719
#DiCarlo, J.E., #Chavez, A., Dietz, S.L., Esvelt, K.M., Church, G.M. Safeguarding CRISPR-Cas9 gene drives in yeast. Nature Biotechnology. 2015; 33:1250-1255: PMCID: PMC4675690
#Chavez, A., #Scheiman, J., #Vora, S., Pruitt, B.W., Tuttle, M., P R Iyer, E., Lin, S., Kiani, S., Guzman, C. D., Wiegand, D.J., Ter-Ovanesyan, D., Braff, J.L., Davidsohn, N., Housden, B.E., Perrimon, N., Weiss, R., Aach, J., Collins, J.J., and Church, G.M. Highly efficient Cas9-mediated transcriptional programming. Nature Methods. 2015; 12:326-328: PMCID: PMC4393883
Jaiswal, S., Fontanillas, P., Flannick, J., Manning, A., Grauman, P. V., Mar, B. G., Lindsley, R. C., Mermel, C. H., Burtt, N., Chavez, A., Higgins, J. M., Moltchanov, V., Kuo, F. C., Kluk, M. J., Henderson, B., Kinnunen, L., Koistinen, H. A., Ladenvall, C., Getz, G., Correa, A., Banahan, B. F., Gabriel, S., Kathiresan, S., Stringham, H. M., McCarthy, M. I., Boehnke, M., Tuomilehto, J., Haiman, C., Groop, L., Atzmon, G., Wilson, J. G., Neuberg, D., Altshuler, D., and Ebert, B. L. Age-related clonal hematopoiesis associated with adverse outcomes. N. Engl. J. Med. 2014; 371:2488–2498: PMCID: PMC4306669
#Glineburg M.R., #Chavez A., Agrawal V., Brill S.J., Johnson F.B. Resolution by unassisted Top3 points to template switch recombination intermediates during DNA replication. J Biol Chem. 2013; 288:33193-33204: PMCID: PMC3829166
Platt, J. M., Ryvkin, P., Wanat, J. J., Donahue, G., Ricketts, M. D., Barrett, S. P., Waters, H. J., Song, S., Chavez, A., Abdallah, K. O., Master, S. R., Wang, L. S., and Johnson, F. B. Rap1 relocalization contributes to the chromatin-mediated gene expression profile and pace of cell senescence. Genes & Development. 2013; 27:1406-1420: PMCID: PMC3701195
Chi, A.W-S., Chavez, A., Xu, L., Weber, B.N., Shestova, O., Schaffer, A., Wertheim, G., Pear, W.S., Izon, D., Bhandoola, A. Identification of Flt3+CD150– myeloid progenitors in adult mouse bone marrow that harbor T lymphoid developmental potential. Blood. 2011; 118:2723-2732: PMCID: PMC3172791
Weber, B.N., Chi, A.W., Chavez, A., Yashiro-Ohtani, Y., Yang, Q., Shestova, O., Bhandoola, A. A critical role for TCF-1 in T-lineage specification and differentiation. Nature. 2011; 476:63-68: PMCID: PMC3156435
Chavez, A., Agrawal, V., Johnson, F.B. Homologous recombination-dependent rescue of Smc5/6 deficiency. J Biol Chem. 2011; 286:5119-5125: PMCID: PMC3037623
Chavez, A., George, V., Agrawal, V., Johnson, F.B. Sumoylation and the structural maintenance of chromosomes (Smc) 5/6 complex slow senescence through recombination intermediate resolution. J Biol Chem. 2010; 285:11922-11930: PMCID: PMC2852929
Kozak, M.L., Chavez, A., Dang, W., Berger, S.L., Ashok, A., Guo, X., Johnson, F.B. Inactivation of the Sas2 histone acetyltransferase delays senescence driven by telomere dysfunction. EMBO J. 2009; 29:158-70: PMCID: PMC2808364
Lee, J.Y., Mogen, J.L., Chavez, A., Johnson F.B. Sgs1 RecQ helicase inhibits survival of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells lacking telomerase and homologous recombination. J Biol Chem. 2008; 283:29847-29858: PMCID: PMC2573055
Turaga, R.V., Massip, L., Chavez, A., Johnson F.B., Lebel M. Werner and Bloom Syndrome proteins prevent DNA breaks upon chromatin structure alteration. Aging Cell. 2007; 6:471-81
Nollen, E.A., Garcia, S.M., van Haaften, G., Kim, S., Chavez, A., Morimoto, R.I., Plasterk, R.H. Genome-wide RNA interference screen identifies previously undescribed regulators of polyglutamine aggregation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2004; 101:6403-6408: PMCID: PMC404057
Up to date publication list: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sbYrDlMAAAAJ&hl=en.