Igor Albizua

At Johns Hopkins, Igor Albizua serves as a lecturer in the MS in Biotechnology program and is also a Senior Specialist in Flow Cytometry at Emory University’s Department of Pediatrics and Winship Cancer Institute.

Through 20 years of experience as a researcher in the fields of human genetics and immunology, Albizua’s focus has been on both applied (Down, Edwards, and Fragile X syndromes) as well as basic research (nondisjunction of human chromosomes, genetic mapping of complex traits, telomere length, and tong term immunity). Some of the key findings his research has highlighted are the description of telomere length as a biomarker of age and risk for chromosome 21 nondisjunction. He also has identified effector genes and the dysregulated downstream pathways in some of the most common symptoms observed in trisomy 18. His research also has yielded a possible explanation for the sex-specific differences in survival, a unique characteristic of trisomy 18 and the characterization of the RNA transcriptome signature of a unique subset of cells in human bone marrow, long-lived plasma cells, responsible for long term immunity.

Albizua also serves as a lecturer in the Center for Biotechnology Education’s Biotechnology Division as well as in the School of Medicine at Emory University. His broad background allows him to teach a variety of subjects, but he is most passionate about the opportunity teaching provides to help people become better scientists and leaders.

He received his PhD from Emory University in Human/Molecular Genetics and was a postdoctoral researcher and instructor in the School of Medicine.