BS Biology
Newcomb College at Tulane University
BA Studio Art
Newcomb College at Tulane University
PhD
Tulane University School of Medicine
Dr. Tsien obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Bachelor of Arts specializing in Studio Art from Tulane University in New Orleans. She received her PhD degree from the Hayward Genetics Center, Human Genetics Program at the Tulane University School of Medicine.
At Tulane University School of Medicine she was the Supervisor of the Molecular Cytogenetics Laboratory in the Hayward Genetics Center, Human Genetics Program. During her post-doctoral training she was the recipient of a fellowship grant from the Fascioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD) Society. Dr. Tsien is board certified by the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners and by the National Certification Agency for Laboratory Personnel as a specialist in the field of Cytogenetics. Dr. Tsien accepted a faculty position in the Department of Genetics at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in January of 2003.
Her current research focuses on the genetics of congenital hearing loss in the Louisiana Acadian (Cajun) and Mexican Mayan populations in collaboration with the Department of Communication Disorders in the School of Allied Health Professions at LSUHSC, Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, and the Genetics Division at the Universidad Juarez Autonoma de Tabasco in Villahermosa, Mexico. In the United States, about 1 out of 1000 children are born with complete sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), with 50-80% of cases due to genetic mutations. Although single-gene mutations causing hearing loss have been previously discovered, it is currently unclear how multiple genes and variants/mutations work together to affect an individual’s hearing. This project examines hearing loss caused by multiple variants/mutations found in the Mexican Mayan and the Louisiana Acadian founder populations and will provide further insight into the mechanisms behind genetic SNHL. She has presented her research at local, national, and international conferences to the clinical and scientific community, and to the lay public. Dr. Tsien is also studying chromosome, chromatin, and epigenetic instability and their relationship to cancer and genetic disease. She is the co-editor of The Louisiana Genetics and Hereditary Health Care Education Center website for patients and their families.She is a reviewer for the International Journal of Audiology. Her research also focuses on cytogenetic rearrangements and chromatin instabilty in cancer progression, and the epigentic mechanisms of folic acid metabolism on human health.
She is involved in genetics education at a variety of levels, teaching residents, post-doctoral fellows, medical students, graduate students, undergraduates, K-12 students, and teachers. Dr. Tsien also directs the Science Youth Initiative, LSUHSC-New Orleans Schools Science Partnership Program, and the LSUHSC Patrick Taylor-BCM Middle and High School Workshop through her Patrick F. Taylor Foundation and Baptist Community Ministries grant funding. The goals of these programs are to make science topics more interesting and accessible in preparation for standardized testing, introduce students to diverse role models in the sciences, and to assist K-12 students to improve their grades as they consider careers in the health and basic sciences. Through at least 75 workshops, more than 2600 students from rural and urban K-12 schools from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds have been introduced to science education. She is the Executive Producer of K-12 educational videos also funded through the Taylor Foundation and LSU Leverage Innovation for Technology Transfer (LIFT2) grant funding. Dr. Tsien directed and organized multiple community outreach projects at the Children's Museum, New Orleans Audubon Zoo in celebration of DNA Day, and the Que Pasa? Latino Festival.
She is the Director of the NSF-funded “REU Site: Research Experience for Underrepresented Minority Undergraduates in Genetic and Biochemical Mechanisms of Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Organisms.” She is the co-director of the High School/Undergraduate Student Summer Research Internship Program , which through her Patrick F. Taylor Foundation, National Science Foundation, Baptist Community Ministries, and Entergy Foundation grant funding, she supports teachers, undergraduates, and high school students to work in research laboratories during the summer. Dr. Tsien trains interns on 1) scientific hard skills (hypothesis-driven research, laboratory techniques, interpretation of results, and presentation of scientific data) and 2) soft skills (resume writing, explaining health and science topics to the lay public) necessary for success in entering science careers. Her goals include increasing the number of individuals from racial and ethnic groups classically underrepresented in science careers, from rural communities, first generation college-educated, non-traditional students, or from disadvantaged backgrounds to health and basic science careers.
Dr. Tsien is a member of the LSUHSC Graduate School Multicultural and Diversity Committee, Association of Women in Science, Stanley Scott Cancer Center, and the American Society of Human Genetics. She has won the 2011 LSU School of Medicine Faculty Assembly Award for Outstanding Service to the Community, the 2012 LSU School of Medicine Excellence award for Teaching and Service, and the 2013 Jack Hines III Memorial Award for Outstanding Service.
Course Director, INTER 141, Introduction to Genetics, Interdisciplinary Program, LSUHSC School of Graduate Studies
Course Director, INTER 180, Science Teaching, Interdisciplinary Program, LSUHSC School of Graduate Studies
Course Director, GENET 234 Epigenetics, Department of Genetics, LSUHSC School of Graduate Studies
Course Director, GENET 292 Human Cytogenetics, Department of Genetics, LSUHSC School of Graduate Studies
Course Director, SPTHAUD 7225 Genetics, Department of Communication Disrders, LSUHSC School of Allied Health Professions
Course Co-director, Molecular Pathology, Department of Pathology Residency Program, LSUHSC School of Medicine
Lecturer, Medical Genetics, LSUHSC School of Medicine
Lecturer, INTER 122 Molecular Biology, "Chromosome structure", LSUHSC School of Graduate Studies
Lecturer, INTER 123 Control of Gene Expression, "Epigenetics", LSUHSC School of Graduate Studies
Lecturer, SPTHAUD 6220, Craniofacial anomalies, “Cytogenetics and dysmorphology”, Department of Communication Disorders, LSUHSC School of Allied Health Professions
Lecturer, MTEC 5119, Introduction to Molecular Diagnostics, “Diagnostics and Genetics”, Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, LSUHSC School of Allied Health Professions
Ethan Nicklow, Tarun Karthik Kumar Mamidi, Jiande Wu, Fern Tsien, Chindo Hicks. Transcriptome Analysis of Molecular Signatures and Pathways Modulating White Blood Cell Count in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Jacob Elnaggar, Fern Tsien, Clayton Yates, Melisa Davis, Lucio Miele, Chindo Hicks. An Integrative Genomics Approach for Associating Genetic Susceptibility with the Tumor Immune Microenvironment in Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Biomedical Journal of Scientific and Technical Research 2019 Feb, 15(1)-2019.
Moore Michelle, Karpinski Aryn, Tsien Fern, An Examination of an Interactive Substance Abuse Prevention Program for High School Students, Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, Volume 27, Sep 28, 2018 Issue 5-6https://doi.org/10.1080/1067828X.2018.1481479
Umrigar A, Musso A, Mercer D, Hurley A, Glausier C, Bakeer M, Marble M, Hicks C, Tsien F. Delayed diagnosis of a patient with Usher syndrome 1C in a Louisiana Acadian family highlights the necessity of timely genetic testing for the diagnosis and management of congenital hearing loss. SAGE Open Medical Case Reports. 2017 Dec 11;5:2050313X17745904.
Mercer D, Hurley A, Tsien F, Detailed Audiological Evaluation of a Patient with Xeroderma Pigmentosum with Neural Degeneration, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, Volume 28, Number 1, January 2017, pp. 80-90(11)
Loupe J, Miller P, Bonner B, Maggi E, Vijayaraghavan J, Zabaleta J, Taylor C, Tsien F, Crabtree J, and Hollenbach A, Acquisition of an Oncogenic Fusion Protein Serves as an Initial Driving Mutation by Inducing Aneuploidy and Overriding Proliferative Defects, Oncotarget, 2016 Aug 7(39), 62814-62835
Bonvillain R, Scarritt M, Pashos M, Sullivan DE, Betancourt AM, Tsien F, Umrigar A, Hoffman AM, Bunnell B, Characterization of Rhesus Macaque Lung-Resident Multipotent Stromal Cells: Potential Cell Source for Pulmonary Tissue Engineering, Cell and Gene Therapy Insights 2016; 2(1), 49-72.
Howe B, Umrigar A, Tsien F. Chromosome Preparation from Cultured Cells, Journal of Visualized Experiments. 2014 Jan 28;(83)
Kibe R, Zhang S, Marrero L, Khan S, Zieske A, Huang J, Durum S, Tsien F, Iwakuma T, Cui Y,* Cross-talk between IL-7Rα signaling and p53 pathway in maintaining chromosomal stability during thymopoiesis and preventing lymphomagenesis, Cell Death and Differentiation. 2012 Jul;19(7):1139-51.
Tsien F , Chromosomes, Center for Acadiana Genetics and Hereditary Health Care, Doucet J and Tsien F, Ed. (2011)
Tsien F, Chromosome abnormalities, Center for Acadiana Genetics and Hereditary Health Care, Doucet J and Tsien F, Ed. (2011)
Izadpanah R, Kaushal D, Kriedt C, Tsien F, Patel B, Dufour J, Bunnell BA, Long-term in vitro expansion alters the biology of adult mesenchymal stem cells, Cancer Research. 2008, Jun 68(11):4229-38.
Tsien F, Morava E, Talarski A, Marble M., Phenotypic features in a boy with trisomy of 16q22—qter due to paternal Y;16 translocation, Clinical Dysmorphology 005, Oct;14(4):177-81.
Morava E, Jackson KE, Tsien F, Marble MR. Trisomy 1q43 syndrome: a consistent phenotype with macrocephaly, characteristic face, developmental delay and cardiac anomalies. Genetic Counseling 2004,15(4):449-53.
Tsien F, Fiala ES, Youn B, Long TI, Laird PW, Weissbecker K, & Ehrlich M: Prolonged culture of normal chorionic villus cells yields ICF syndrome-like chromatin decondensation and rearrangements, Cytogenetics and Genome Research. 2002, 98(1): 13-21.
Past and present lab members:
