Katherine Wert, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

• Embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells
• Gene therapy
• Genetic mechanisms underlying ocular neurodegeneration
• Genome engineering
• Human stem cell transplantations
• Inherited retinal degenerations
• Metabolism and metabolic reprogramming
• Mouse models of ocular disease
• Retinitis Pigmentosa

Featured Publications

CAPN5 genetic inactivation phenotype supports therapeutic inhibition trials.

Wert KJ, Koch SF, Velez G, Hsu CW, Mahajan M, Bassuk AG, Tsang SH, Mahajan VB, Hum. Mutat. 2019 Aug

Insights into Retinal Development Using Live Imaging in Female Carriers of Choroideremia.

Wert KJ, Bakall B, Bassuk AG, Tsang SH, Mahajan VB, Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina 2019 May 50 5 e158-e162

Metabolite therapy guided by liquid biopsy proteomics delays retinal degeneration

Wert KJ, Velez G, Vijayalaksmi K, Shankar V, Sengillo JD, Zare RN, Bassuk AG, Tsang SH, Mahajan VB Biorxiv 2019

In Vivo Expression of Mutant Calpains in the Eye Using Lentivirus.

Wert KJ, Mahajan VB, Methods Mol. Biol. 2019 1915 233-247

Extracellular superoxide dismutase (SOD3) regulates oxidative stress at the vitreoretinal interface.

Wert KJ, Velez G, Cross MR, Wagner BA, Teoh-Fitzgerald ML, Buettner GR, McAnany JJ, Olivier A, Tsang SH, Harper MM, Domann FE, Bassuk AG, Mahajan VB, Free Radic. Biol. Med. 2018 08 124 408-419

Establishment of human pluripotent stem cell-derived pancreatic ß-like cells in the mouse pancreas.

Ma H, Wert KJ, Shvartsman D, Melton DA, Jaenisch R, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2018 04 115 15 3924-3929

Cytotoxic Escherichia coli strains encoding colibactin isolated from immunocompromised mice with urosepsis and meningitis.

Bakthavatchalu V, Wert KJ, Feng Y, Mannion A, Ge Z, Garcia A, Scott KE, Caron TJ, Madden CM, Jacobsen JT, Victora G, Jaenisch R, Fox JG, PLoS ONE 2018 13 3 e0194443

Molecular Criteria for Defining the Naive Human Pluripotent State.

Theunissen TW, Friedli M, He Y, Planet E, O'Neil RC, Markoulaki S, Pontis J, Wang H, Iouranova A, Imbeault M, Duc J, Cohen MA, Wert KJ, Castanon R, Zhang Z, Huang Y, Nery JR, Drotar J, Lungjangwa T, Trono D, Ecker JR, Jaenisch R, Cell Stem Cell 2016 10 19 4 502-515

Human neural crest cells contribute to coat pigmentation in interspecies chimeras after in utero injection into mouse embryos.

Cohen MA, Wert KJ, Goldmann J, Markoulaki S, Buganim Y, Fu D, Jaenisch R, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2016 Feb 113 6 1570-5

Neuroretinal hypoxic signaling in a new preclinical murine model for proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

Wert KJ, Mahajan VB, Zhang L, Yan Y, Li Y, Tosi J, Hsu CW, Nagasaki T, Janisch KM, Grant MB, Mahajan M, Bassuk AG, Tsang SH, Signal Transduct Target Ther 2016 1

• BrightFocus Foundation Travel Award
  (2019)
• The Takashi Murachi Award for the outstanding presentation by a post-doctoral trainee at the FASEB Summer Research Conference
  (2016)
• NIH/NCI F32CA196065 (PI)
  (2015-2017)
• Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research Director’s Fellowship Allowance
  (2015)
• The Bernard F. Erlanger Award for Excellence in Research
  (2014)
• Columbia University Graduate Student Advisory Council Travel Grant
  (2013)
• New York Academy of Sciences Fellow Teaching Credential
  (2013)
• American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG)/Charles J. Epstein Trainee Award for Excellence in Human Genetics Research – Finalist
  (2012)
• B. Dobli Srinivasan, M.D. Award, Best Resident/Fellow Basic Science Research Paper
  (2012)
• March of Dimes Scholarship
  (2012)
• Marija Dokmanovic Chouinard Award for Excellence in Research
  (2012)
• Burroughs-Wellcome Fund Travel Grant
  (2010)
• B. Dobli Srinivasan, M.D. Award, Best Resident/Fellow Clinical Research Paper
  (2009)

• Stanford University School of Medicine (2017-2019)
• Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research/MIT (2014-2017)
• Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences/Institute of Human Nutrition (2009-2013)
• Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons/Institute of Human Nutrition (2008-2009)