Gerd A. Blobel, MD, PhD
About Gerd A. Blobel, MD, PhD
Gerd A. Blobel MD, PhD, holds the Frank E. Weise III Endowed Chair of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Blobel earned his MD degree from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and a PhD degree from Rockefeller University in New York. His lab focuses on the genetic and epigenetic control of hematopoiesis and its disorders. Specifically, he studies how tissue-specific transcription factors govern the specification and maintenance of hematopoietic cell lineages. He also examines how transcription programs are epigenetically transmitted through mitosis to maintain lineage identity, and how genetic regulatory elements are organized spatially within the nucleus. He has given numerous lectures at international conferences on hematopoiesis, transcription, and epigenetics. Dr. Blobel has been continually funded by the NIH since arriving at Penn and holds a MERIT award. He was elected to the ASCI (2004) and AAP (2008). Dr. Blobel is the co-director of the Epigenetics Program at the University of Pennsylvania.
Titles
Investigator
Awards and Honors
2015, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Mentor Award
2014, Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award
2013, Foerderer Innovation Grant Award
2010, MERIT award 2R37DK058044
2008, The Frank E. Weise III Endowed Chair in Hematology
2008, Foerderer Innovation Grant Award
2008, Pilot project grant, Abramson Cancer Center
2007, Pilot grant, Center for Molecular Studies in Digestive and Liver Diseases
2007, Pilot project grant, Abramson Cancer Center
2001, Pilot grant from the Institute of Human Gene Therapy
1998, American Society of Hematology (ASH) Scholar Award
1998, Cooley’s Anemia Foundation Junior Faculty Award
1997, Baldasare Award
1997, Florence R.C. Murray Award
1997, Florence R.C. Murray Award
1992, Training grant, German Research Foundation (DFG)
1986, M.D. degree conferred, summa cum laude
and Culture of the State of Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Leadership and Memberships
Memberships in Professional Organizations
American Society of Hematology
American Society for Microbiology
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI)
Member, Association of American Physicians (AAP)
Editorial and Academic Positions
Editorial Positions
Reviewer
Blood
Cancer Research
Cell
Development
Developmental Cell
Epigenetics & Chromatin
Experimental Hematology
Genes and Development
Genome Research
International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Journal of Cell Biology
Journal of Clinical Investigation
Journal of Leukocyte Biology
Molecular Cell
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Nature Cell Biology
Nature Genetics
Nature Methods
Nature Structural and Molecular Biology
Nucleic Acids Research
Oncogene
PLoS Genetics
PLoS One
PNAS
Science
Science Translational Medicine
Academic, Institutional and Scientific Committees
2014, NIH Think Tank 4D Nucleome
2013-2017, American Society of Hematology (ASH) Scientific Committee on Red Cell Biology
Graduate Group in Cell and Molecular Biology (GGR)
Graduate Group in Cancer Biology
Graduate Group in Pharmacological Sciences
Graduate Group in Immunology
Combined Degree Admissions/Advisory Committee
CAMB Admissions Committee
Cancer Biology Admissions Committee
Executive Board Member, Epigenetics Program
Research Interests
Higher order chromatin structure
Gene expression
Epigenetics
Globin genes
Sickle cell disease
Therapeutics
Education & training
Graduate Degree
PhD in Molecular Oncology - Rockefeller University, New York, NY
Medical Degree
MD - Ruprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Fellowship
Harvard Medical School (Hematology), Cambridge, MA