Dr. John Greally

On Wednesday, March 2, 2022, the Honor students in the S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program at Stern College for Women welcomed Dr. John Greally for a discussion about genomics, a field of biology that focuses on the evolution, structure, function, editing and mapping of genomes. Dr. Greally, who is the director of the Center for Epigenomics and professor and chief of computational genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a clinical geneticist at Children’s Hospital at the Montefiore Medical Center, talked about how genomics can be used to diagnose human diseases. He explored the genomic system and some of the challenges in the field, such as the way data is analyzed in the lab, which can make it difficult for physicians to understand and use. He also discussed his work helping underserved communities in the Bronx and a major challenge that exists with genomic sequencing, which is that most research currently being done is on Caucasians and not people of other races and ethnicities.

Dr. John Greally speaks with three students.

“I very much enjoyed Dr. Greally’s talk about genomics and the impact it has today and will continue to have in the future,” said Gitty Goldstein ’24S. “His presentation was informative, fascinating, and thought-provoking, and I gained a lot from the evening.” His discussion of the racial flaws in current research practices particularly resonated with many of the students, with Goldstein adding, “I especially appreciated how he addressed the unfortunate realities facing underserved communities and the disparities in health care that ultimately stem from racism.” This event was one of many offered throughout the semester by the Honors program, directed by Dr. Cynthia Wachtell, a research professor of American Studies at Stern College. Thanks to Gitty Goldstein for assisting in the writing of this article.