ACADEMIC AFFILIATIONS

Associate Professor

• Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University
  Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Perinatology Research Branch, NICHD/NIH/DHHS

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

• Ph.D. Electrical Engineering
  University of Southern California
  Los Angeles, California
• B.S-M.S. Telecommunications Engineering
  Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
  Barcelona, Catalonia
• Postdoctoral Fellowship – Genetics
  University of Chicago
  Chicago, Illinois

RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Authored and co-authored more than 45 articles in the areas of genomics, genetics, and computational biology.
• Characterized the molecular common pathway of labor, and term and preterm parturition at single cell resolution.
• Determined that co-expression of the ACE2 and TMPRSS2 transcripts is negligible in the placenta and chorioamniotic membranes, showing why vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is rare.
• Developed useful tools to analyze genomic datasets such as transcription factor footprints (CENTIPEDE), eQTL fine mapping (torus), copy number detection (GADA), and allele specific expression (QuASAR).
• Genes with gene-by-environment interactions affecting their transcription are also more likely to be associated with complex traits.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

• 2003 “La Caixa” Fellowship for doctoral studies in United States , Fundacio La Caixa
• 2007 Best Paper Award finalist at ICASSP, IEEE
• 2009 “Chicago Fellows” postdoctoral scholarship , The University of Chicago
• 2011 Young Investigator Award, International Congress of Human Genetics (ASHG), Montreal
• 2012 Top Ten Papers in Regulatory and Systems Genomics 2011, ISCB/RECOMB
• 2013 Top Ten Papers in Regulatory and Systems Genomics 2012, ISCB/RECOMB
• 2017 Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award in the Health Sciences, Wayne State University
• 2019 Research Excellence Award, Wayne State University School of Medicine’s College Teaching Award

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Analysis of functional genomics data (ATAC-seq, RNA-seq) both bulk and at single cell resolution.
• Development of computational tools and statistical genetics models.
• Molecular mechanisms regulating gene transcription, chromatin accessibility, and transcription factor binding.
• Genetics of molecular traits and gene-by-environment interactions.
• Precision medicine for preterm birth and pregnancy complications.

GRANTS

• R01- GM109215 “Functional Characterization of the Genetic and Environmental Determinants of Complex Traits” NIH-NIGMS (2014—Present)

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

• Pique-Regi R, Romero R, Tarca AL, Luca F, Xu Y, Alazizi A, Leng Y, Hsu CD, Gomez-Lopez N. Does the human placenta express the canonical cell entry mediators for SARS-CoV-2? Elife. 2020 Jul 14; 9:e58716. PMID: 32662421
• Hukku A, Quick C, Luca F, Pique-Regi R, Wen X. BAGSE: a Bayesian hierarchical model approach for gene set enrichment analysis. Bioinformatics. 2020 Mar 1; 36:1689-1695. PMID: 31702789
• Tarca AL, Romero R, Pique-Regi R, Pacora P, Done B, Kacerovsky M, Bhatti G, Jaiman S, Hassan SS, Hsu CD, Gomez-Lopez N. Amniotic fluid cell-free transcriptome: a glimpse into fetal development and placental cellular dynamics during normal pregnancy. BMC Med Genomics. 2020 Feb 12; 13:25. PMID: 32050959
• Pique-Regi R, Romero R, Tarca AL, Sendler ED, Xu Y, Garcia-Flores V, Leng Y, Luca F, Hassan SS, Gomez-Lopez N. Single cell transcriptional signatures of the human placenta in term and preterm parturition. Elife. 2019 Dec 12; 8:e52004. PMID: 31829938
• Findley AS, Richards AL, Petrini C, Alazizi A, Doman E, Shanku AG, Davis GO, Hauff N, Sorokin Y, Wen X, Pique-Regi R, Luca F. Interpreting coronary artery disease risk through gene-environment interactions in gene regulation. Genetics. 2019 Oct; 213:651-663. PMID: 31492806
• Kalita CA, Brown CD, Freiman A, Isherwood J, Wen X, Pique-Regi R, Luca F. High-throughput characterization of genetic effects on DNA-protein binding and gene transcription. Genome Res. 2018 Nov; 28:1701-1708. PMID: 30254052
• Burl RB, Ramseyer VD, Rondini EA, Pique-Regi R, Lee YH, Granneman JG. Deconstructing adipogenesis induced by β3-adrenergic receptor activation with single-cell expression profiling. Cell Metab. 2018 Aug 7; 28:300-309.e4. PMID: 29937373
• Moyerbrailean GA, Richards AL, Kurtz D, Kalita CA, Davis GO, Harvey CT, Alazizi A, Watza D, Sorokin Y, Hauff N, Zhou X, Wen X, Pique-Regi R*, Luca F. High-throughput allele-specific expression across 250 environmental conditions. Genome Res. 2016 Dec; 26:1627-1638. PMID: 27934696
• Moyerbrailean GA, Kalita CA, Harvey CT, Wen X, Luca F, Pique-Regi R*. Which Genetics Variants in DNase-Seq Footprints Are More Likely to Alter Binding? PLoS Genet. 2016 Feb 22; 12:e1005875. PMID: 26901046
• Wen X, Luca F, Pique-Regi R*. Cross-population joint analysis of eQTLs: fine mapping and functional annotation. PLoS Genet. 2015 Apr 23; 11:e1005176. PMID: 25906321
• Pique-Regi R*, Degner JF, Pai AA, Gaffney DJ, Gilad Y, Pritchard JK. Accurate inference of transcription factor binding from DNA sequence and chromatin accessibility data. Genome Res. 2011 Mar; 21:447-55. PMID: 21106904

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