Crystal Marconett, Ph.D.

Crystal Marconett, Ph.D., brings her combined expertise in bioinformatics and molecular biology to City of Hope’s^® lung cancer research program, in the role of associate professor in the Department of Integrative Translational Sciences.  

Dr. Marconett earned her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining City of Hope, she was a faculty member at the University of Southern California in the departments of Surgery, Translational Genomics and Biochemistry/Molecular Medicine. Her research focuses on the cellular and molecular origins of lung cancer, as well as disruptions to long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) biology in the lung, which facilitates oncogenic transformation.  

Dr. Marconett has published 40 peer-reviewed articles, including 15 as first or senior author, and she is the principal investigator for a National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute-sponsored R01 research grant. Her work has been recognized with multiple awards, including an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant and a Department of Defense IDEA Award. 

• 2020, Research Scholar Award, American Cancer Society
• 2017, Featured Researcher, American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology
• 2013, Canary Foundation for Early Detection Research Fellow, Canary-American Cancer Society partnership

Regional Honors, Scholarships & Awards

• 2018, Wright Foundation Awardee
• 2017, STOP Cancer Howard and Andre Shore Awardee
• 2017, Baxter Fellowship Award
• 2007, California Breast Cancer Research Program pre-doctoral fellowship awardee
• 2005, Chancellors Predoctoral Fellowship Award
• 2005, Highest Honors, University of California, Santa Cruz
• 2005, College Honors, Cowell College, University of California, Santa Cruz

• Shen H, Chen W, Liu Y, Castaldi A, Castillo J, Horie M, Flodby P, Sundar S, Li C, Ji Y, Minoo P, [Marconett CN*, Zhou B*, Borok Z*]. Gramd2+ alveolar type I cell plasticity facilitates cell state transitions in organoid culture. BioRXiv November 2023 (PMID: 27905051). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37905051/ 
• Yang M, Shen H, Flodby P, Koss MD, Liu Y, Stueve TR, Bassiouni R, Castillo J, Mullen D, Ryan AL, Jashashvili T, Carpten J, Wallace WD, Zhou B, Borok Z, Marconett CN. Alveolar type 1 cells serve as a cell of origin for lung papillary adenocarcinoma with distinct histologic presentation and molecular features.  Cell Reports, September 2023 (PMID: 37995179) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37995179
• Mohazzab-Hosseinian S, Garcia E, Weimels J, Marconett C, Corona K, Howe C, Foley H, Lerner D, Lurvey N, Farzan S, Bastain T, Breton C. Effect of parental adverse childhood experiences on intergenerational DNA methylation signatures. Research Square 2023 (PMID: 37461498). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37461498/ 
• Mills C, Marconett CN, Lewinger JP, Mi H. PEACOCK: a machine learning approach to assess the validity of cell-type specific enhancer-gene regulatory relationships. NPJ Systems Biology and Applications 2023; 9(1):9. (PMID: 37012250) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37012250/
• Zhong Q, Liu Y, Ramos Correa M, Marconett CN, Minoo P, Li C, Ann DK, Zhou B, Borok Z. FOXO1 couples KGF and PI-3K/AKT signaling to NKX2.1-regulated differentiation of alveolar epithelial cells. Cells 2022; 11(7):1122. (PMID: 35406686) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35406686/
• Tran E, Shi T, Li X, Chowdhury AY, Jiang D, Liu Y, Wang H, Yan C, Wallace WD, Lu R, Firth Ryan A, Marconett CN, Zhou B, Borok Z, Offringa IA. Development of human alveolar epithelial cell models to study distal lung biology and disease. iScience, 2022; 25(2):103780. (PMID: 35169685) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35169685/ 
• Johnson C, Mullen D, Selamat SA, Campan M, Offringa IA, Marconett CN. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor mediates tobacco-exposure associated epigenetic activation and transcriptional induction of SULT1C2 in lung adenocarcinoma.  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(1):416. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010416. (PMID: 35010676) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35010676/
• Zhou B, Stueve TR, Mullen D, Maio L, Wang Y, Liu Y, Luo J, Tran E, Mihalakakos EA, Siegmund KD, Ryan A, Offringa IA, Borok Z, Marconett CN. Comprehensive epigenomic profiling of human alveolar epithelial cell differentiation identifies key epigenetic states and transcription factor co-regulatory networks for maintenance of distal lung identity. BMC Genomics, 2021 22(1):906. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-021-08152-6. (PMID: 34922464). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34922464/ 
• Mather R, Parolia A, Carson S, Venalainen E, Roig-Charles D, Chu SC, Alborelli I, Wu R, Lin D, Nabavi N, Jachetti E, Colombo MP, Xue H, Pucci P, Ci X, Hawkes C, Li Y, Pandha H, Ulitsky I, Marconett CN, Quagliata L, Jiang W, Romero I, Wang Y, Crea F. The evolutionarily conserved long non-coding RNA LINC00261 drives neuroendocrine prostate cancer proliferation and metastasis via distinct nuclear and cytoplasmic mechanisms. Molecular Oncology 2021, 15(7):1921-1941. (PMID: 33793068) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33793068/ 
• Mills C, Muruganujan A, Ebert D, Marconett CN, Lewinger JP, Thomas PD, Mi H. PEREGRINE: A Genome-Wide Prediction of Enhancer to Gene Relationships Supported by Experimental Evidence. PLoS One 2020, 15(12):e0243791. (PMID: 33320871) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33320871/ 
• Castaldi A, Horie M, Sunohara M, Wang H, Ji Y, Liu Y, Li F, Wilkinson TA, Hung L, Shen H, Kage H, Offringa IA, Marconett CN, Flodby P, Zhou B, Borok Z. Integrated single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis of aquaporin 5-expressing mouse lung epithelial cells identifies GPRC5A as a novel validated type I cell Surface Marker. Cells 2020,  9(11):2460 (PMID: 33187367). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33187367/ 
• Mullen DJ, Yan C, Kang DS, Zhou B, Borok Z, Marconett CN, Farnham PJ, Offringa IA, Rhie SK. TENET 2.0: identification of key transcriptional regulators and enhancers in lung adenocarcinoma. PLoS Genetics 2020, 16(9): e1009023. (PMID: 32925947). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32925947/