Faculty

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Gerd A. Blobel, MD, PhD

Professor of Pediatrics (Hematology)

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Department: Pediatrics

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1f Graduate Group Affiliations 8

46 Contact information
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316H Abramson Research Center
3a 3615 Civic Center Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19104

30 Office: (215) 590-3988
34 Fax: (215) 590-4834
34 Lab: (215) 590-4461
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Email:
BLOBEL@CHOP.EDU

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18 Publications
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26 Search PubMed for articles c

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13 Education:
21 7 MD c
4d Ruprecht - Karls - Universität, Heidelberg, Germany, 1986.
21 8 PhD c
39 Rockefeller University, New York, 1991.
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Links
ae Search PubMed for articles
5f Blobel lab website
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5 3 3 8f Permanent link
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b6 > Perelman School of Medicine > Faculty > Details a

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Description of Research Expertise

2a Research Interests
77 higher order chromatin structure, gene expression, epigenetics, globin genes, sickle cell disease, therapeutics
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26 Description of Research
248 We study how genetic regulatory elements are organized spatially in the nucleus and how transcription programs and chromatin architecture are organized throughout the cell cycle to maintain lineage identity. A major effort in the lab is directed towards understanding the regulation of globin gene expression and developing approaches to perturb globin gene expression to ameliorate sickle cell disease. Our work bridges basic science with pre-clinical studies. We combine molecular, genomic, biochemical, and imaging approaches with studies in normal and gene targeted mice.
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25 Lab Rotation Projects:
4b For information about rotation projects please contact me directly.
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1e Lab personnel:
20 Aryan Ashraf, technician
30 Abhirup Bagchi, PhD, postdoctoral fellow
2f Rahul Bhansali, MD, postdoctoral fellow
28 Raymond Carter, graduate student
2d Chelsey Chen, combined degree student
2d Umer Farooq, PhD, postdoctoral fellow
2e Paul Kaminski, combined degree student
34 Eugene Khandros, MD-PhD, Assistant Professor
22 Sebastian Long, technician
1f Kristen Min, technician
2c Luisa Mori, PhD, postdoctoral fellow
30 Liz Traxler, MD-PhD, Assistant Professor
2d Siqing Wang, PhD, postdoctoral fellow
2c Xiang Wang, PhD, postdoctoral fellow
2f Xiaokang Wang, PhD, postdoctoral fellow
35 Michael Willcockson, MD-PhD, pediatrics fellow
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Selected Publications

185 Traxler EA, Hotan Q, Shao Y, Komar C, Chen Q, Saari MS, Thrasher AJ, Yang S, Qin K, Wang M, Peslak SA, Abdulmalik O, Giardine BM, Keller CA, Hardison RC, Minn AJ, Khandros E, Shi J, Blobel GA.: Optimized CRISPR-Cas12a genome-wide screen reveals PTPA phosphatase pathway in fetal hemoglobin silencing. Blood Jan 2026.

157 Wang X, Aboreden NG, Cai Y, Lam JC, Henderson KA, Xiang J, Giardine BM, Hardison RC, Keller CA, Nagarajan L, Brandt SJ, Blobel GA.: Single-stranded DNA-binding proteins are essential components of the architectural LDB1 protein complex. Mol Cell 85: 3074-3089, Aug 2025.

136 Aboreden NG, Lam JC, Goel VY, Wang S, Wang X, Midla SC, Quijano A, Keller CA, Giardine BM, Hardison RC, Zhang H, Hansen AS, Blobel GA.: LDB1 establishes multi-enhancer networks to regulate gene expression. Mol Cell 85: 376-393, Dec 2024.

143 Zhao H, Lin Y, Lin E, Liu F, Shu L, Jing D, Wang B, Wang M, Shan F, Zhang L, Lam JC, Midla SC, Giardine BM, Keller CA, Hardison RC, Blobel GA, Zhang H.: Genome folding principles uncovered in condensin-depleted mitotic chromosomes. Nature Genet 2024.

173 Vermunt MW, Luan J, Zhang Z, Thrasher AJ, Huang A, Saari MS, Khandros E, Beagrie RA, Zhang S, Vemulamada P, Brilleman M, Lee K, Yano JA, Giardine BM, Keller CA, Hardison RC, Blobel GA.: Gene silencing dynamics are modulated by transiently active regulatory elements. Mol Cell 83: 715-730, Mar 2023.

166 Huang P, Peslak SA, Ren R, Khandros E, Qin K, Keller CA, Giardine B, Bell HW, Lan X, Sharma M, Horton JR, Abdulmalik O, Chou ST, Shi J, Crossley M, Hardison RC, Cheng X, Blobel GA.: HIC2 controls developmental hemoglobin switching by repressing BCL11A transcription. Nature Genet 2022.

18d Lan X, Ren R, Feng R, Ly LC, Lan Y, Zhang Z, Aboreden N, Qin K, Horton JR, Grevet JD, Mayuranathan T, Abdulmalik O, Keller CA, Giardine B, Hardison RC, Crossley M, Weiss MJ, Cheng X, Shi J, Blobel GA.: ZNF410 Uniquely Activates the NuRD Component CHD4 to Silence Fetal Hemoglobin Expression. Mol Cell 81: 239-254, Jan 2021.

12a Zhang D, Huang P, Sharma M, Keller CA, Giardine B, Zhang H, Gilgenast TG, Phillips-Cremins JE, Hardison RC, Blobel GA.: Alteration of genome folding via contact domain boundary insertion. Nature Genet 52: 1076-1087, Oct 2020.

188 Zhang Haoyue, Emerson Daniel J, Gilgenast Thomas G, Titus Katelyn R, Lan Yemin, Huang Peng, Zhang Di, Wang Hongxin, Keller Cheryl A, Giardine Belinda, Hardison Ross C, Phillips-Cremins Jennifer E, Blobel Gerd A: Chromatin structure dynamics during the mitosis-to-G1 phase transition. Nature 576(7785): 158-162, 12 2019.

196 Grevet JD, Lan X, Hamagami N, Edwards CR, Sankaranarayanan L, Ji X, Bhardwaj SK, Face CJ, Posocco DF, Abdulmalik O, Keller CA, Giardine B, Sidoli S, Garcia BA, Chou ST, Liebhaber SA, Hardison RC, Shi J, and Blobel GA: Domain-focused CRISPR-screen identifies HRI as a fetal hemoglobin regulator in human erythroid cells. Science 2018.

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26 Last updated: 04/06/2026
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