COPH student Jan Dahrendorff graduated this past summer with his . He鈥檒l be taking the next step as the first student to enter the newly established genomics program.
The USF genomics programs are comprised of an interdisciplinary team of researchers actively engaged in genomics research. It is a uniquely collaborative environment in which representatives from a variety of academic disciplines use a wide range of approaches (e.g., bench work, bioinformatics, computational modeling, systems biology) to promote understanding of genome structure and function and to use genomic sciences to answer complex questions relating to health, disease and environmental challenges.
Dahrendorff moved to the U.S. in 2013 from Germany after being recruited for swimming at Saint Leo University in St. Leo, Fla. There he earned his undergraduate degree in psychology.
After graduation, Dahrendorff found a job at USF working for , assistant professor in the . At her laboratory studying the biology of degenerative diseases, he worked as a laboratory technician and became interested in the interplay of genes and psychiatric disorders.
He decided to reach out to the COPH鈥檚 , professor of psychiatric genomics, who encouraged him to apply to the MSPH in genomics program.
While the COVID-19 pandemic created challenges for Dahrendorff in the last year of his MSPH degree, he said that he鈥檚 so grateful for the program鈥檚 support and the experience he was able to gain.
As the PhD program is so new, Dahrendorff with be starting his PhD degree in the global communicable diseases concentration and will then transfer over to the genomics program.
鈥淚'm very excited about the new program! Everything is new, so I don't really have a reference of how things are going to go. But if I have an interest in something research wise, I鈥檓 going to pursue it,鈥� he said.
Dahrendorff said that the field of genomics gives him a lot of research options.
鈥淏ecause of the interdisciplinary nature of genomics, you are able to work with people from so many different backgrounds together as a team. It's a very good experience,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think in terms of career outlooks, you have so much flexibility and are able to do and research what you want.鈥�