Federica Di Palma

Federica Di Palma
Alma mater	University of Reading
Scientific career
Thesis	Analysis and mapping of bovine MHC class I genes  (1999)

Federica Di Palma is a scientist at Genome British Columbia. She is known for her work in genomics, data science, and biodiversity preservation.

Education and career

Di Palma earned her Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of Reading, United Kingdom, where she focused on the analysis and mapping of bovine MHC class I genes. ^[1] She conducted postdoctoral work at the United States' National Institutes of Health and then moved to the University of New Hampshire in 2002. In 2006 she moved to the Broad Institute where she led the vertebrate biology group. ^[2] In 2014 Di Palma was named the director of science at The Genome Analysis Centre. ^[3] As of 2024 Di Palma is the chief scientific officer and vice president of research and innovation at Genome British Columbia. ^[4]

Research

Di Palma's early work was a part of the Human Genome Project where she identified genes responsible for deafness syndromes in both mice and humans. ^{[5] [6]} She then worked on genome sequencing projects to examine evolution in the Caribbean anole lizard, ^[7] the cichlids of East African lakes, ^[8] and the three-spine stickleback. ^[9] Di Palma is part of a coalition working to expand science research in Columbia. ^[10]

Selected publications

• Palma, Federica Di; Holme, Ralph H.; Bryda, Elizabeth C.; Belyantseva, Inna A.; Pellegrino, Richard; Kachar, Bechara; Steel, Karen P.; Noben-Trauth, Konrad (2001). "Mutations in Cdh23, encoding a new type of cadherin, cause stereocilia disorganization in waltzer, the mouse model for Usher syndrome type 1D" . Nature Genetics. 27 (1): 103–107. doi:10.1038/83660. ISSN   1061-4036. PMID   11138008.
• Di Palma, Federica; Belyantseva, Inna A.; Kim, Hung J.; Vogt, Thomas F.; Kachar, Bechara; Noben-Trauth, Konrad (2002-11-12). "Mutations in Mcoln3 associated with deafness and pigmentation defects in varitint-waddler ( Va ) mice". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 99 (23): 14994–14999. doi: 10.1073/pnas.222425399 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   137533 . PMID   12403827.
• Grabherr, Manfred G; Haas, Brian J; Yassour, Moran; Levin, Joshua Z; Thompson, Dawn A; Amit, Ido; Adiconis, Xian; Fan, Lin; Raychowdhury, Raktima; Zeng, Qiandong; Chen, Zehua; Mauceli, Evan; Hacohen, Nir; Gnirke, Andreas; Rhind, Nicholas (2011). "Full-length transcriptome assembly from RNA-Seq data without a reference genome". Nature Biotechnology. 29 (7): 644–652. doi:10.1038/nbt.1883. ISSN   1087-0156. PMC   3571712 . PMID   21572440.

References

1. Di Palma, Federica (1999). Analysis and mapping of bovine MHC class I genes (PhD thesis). University of Reading . Retrieved 8 Nov 2025.
2. "Federica di Palma". 23 November 2015.
3. "TGAC announces new Director of Science". July 14, 2014. Archived from the original on July 22, 2023. Retrieved 2024-06-06.
4. "Federica di Palma". Genome BC.
5. Jeffries, Elisabeth (27 November 2018). "Q&A: It takes many people to smash the glass ceiling". SciDev.Net. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
6. Di Palma, Federica; Belyantseva, Inna A.; Kim, Hung J.; Vogt, Thomas F.; Kachar, Bechara; Noben-Trauth, Konrad (2002-11-12). "Mutations in Mcoln3 associated with deafness and pigmentation defects in varitint-waddler ( Va ) mice". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 99 (23): 14994–14999. doi: 10.1073/pnas.222425399 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   137533 . PMID   12403827.
7. Bridger, Haley (August 31, 2011). "First lizard genome sequenced". The Harvard Gazette.
8. Goldman, Jason G. (2021-05-01). "Evolution's Favorite Fish Diversify through 'Noncoding' Genes". Scientific American. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
9. "Stickleback genome holds clues to adaptive evolution".
10. Nugent, Addison (February 3, 2022). "How a Group of Former Colombian Guerrilla Fighters Became Citizen Scientists". Discover.

External links

• Federica Di Palma publications indexed by Google Scholar