Casey E Romanoski, PhD

Associate Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine

Associate Professor, Clinical Translational Sciences

Associate Professor, Genetics GIDP

Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute

Office Room Number: BSRL 452
Lab Room Number: BSRL 429

(520) 626-7244

cromanoski@arizona.edu

Links

Romanoski Lab

Bibliography

Degrees

Awards

NHLBI Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) 2014-2019

Teaching Interests

Systems genetics approaches to identify mechanisms of complex disease.

Research Interests

The overarching goal of my research program is to better understand the interaction between DNA variation and gene regulation. I study this interaction in settings of inflammation with application to complex diseases like atherosclerosis and hypertension. My research is predominantly focused on endothelial cells, which line blood vessels and are mediators of inflammation in the vessel wall. Using next-generation sequencing technologies, and a combination of experimental and computational approaches, we study how endothelial cells achieve context-appropriate expression patterns in healthy and inflammatory settings. By leveraging the interconnected relationship between DNA sequence, epigenetics, gene expression, and disease loci from genome-wide association studies, we aim to identify and interpret complex disease mechanisms.

Publications

Chella Krishnan, Karthickeyan, et al. “Sex-Specific Genetic Regulation of Adipose Mitochondria and Metabolic Syndrome by Ndufv2.”. Nat Metab, Oct. 2025, https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-021-00481-w.

Sukhavasi, Katyayani, et al. “Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Reveals Sex Differences in the Subcellular Composition and Associated Gene-Regulatory Network Activity of Human Carotid Plaques.”. Nat Cardiovasc Res, vol. 4, no. 4, Apr. 2025, pp. 412-3, https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-025-00628-y.

Selvarajan, Ilakya, et al. “Coronary Artery Disease Risk Variant Dampens the Expression of CALCRL by Reducing HSF Binding to Shear Stress Responsive Enhancer in Endothelial Cells In Vitro.”. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol, vol. 44, no. 6, June 2024, pp. 1330-45, https://doi.org/10.1161/ATVBAHA.123.318964.

Li, Jin, et al. “Mechanosensitive Super-Enhancers Regulate Genes Linked to Atherosclerosis in Endothelial Cells.”. J Cell Biol, vol. 223, no. 3, Mar. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202211125.

Adelus, Maria L, et al. “Single Cell ’omic Profiles of Human Aortic Endothelial Cells and Human Atherosclerotic Lesions Reveals Heterogeneity of Endothelial Subtype and Response to Activating Perturbations.”. BioRxiv, Jan. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.03.535495.

Shin, Junchul, et al. “Unraveling the Role of Sex in Endothelial Cell Dysfunction: Evidence From Lineage Tracing Mice and Cultured Cells.”. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol, vol. 44, no. 1, Jan. 2024, pp. 238-53, https://doi.org/10.1161/ATVBAHA.123.319833.

Boutagy, Nabil E, et al. “TNFα Increases the Degradation of Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Kinase 4 by the Lon Protease to Support Proinflammatory Genes.”. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, vol. 120, no. 38, Sept. 2023, p. e2218150120, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2218150120.

Fowler, Joseph Wayne M, et al. “SREBP2 Regulates the Endothelial Response to Cytokines via Direct Transcriptional Activation of KLF6.”. J Lipid Res, vol. 64, no. 8, Aug. 2023, p. 100411, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlr.2023.100411.

Afshar, Yalda, et al. “Transcriptional Drifts Associated With Environmental Changes in Endothelial Cells.”. Elife, vol. 12, Mar. 2023, https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81370.

Toropainen, Anu, et al. “Functional Noncoding SNPs in Human Endothelial Cells Fine-Map Vascular Trait Associations.”. Genome Res, vol. 32, no. 3, Mar. 2022, pp. 409-24, https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.276064.121.

Shen, Zeyang, et al. “Systematic Analysis of Naturally Occurring Insertions and Deletions That Alter Transcription Factor Spacing Identifies Tolerant and Sensitive Transcription Factor Pairs.”. Elife, vol. 11, Jan. 2022, https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.70878.

Örd, Tiit, et al. “Single-Cell Epigenomics and Functional Fine-Mapping of Atherosclerosis GWAS Loci.”. Circ Res, May 2021, https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.121.318971.

Selvarajan, Ilakya, et al. “Integrative Analysis of Liver-Specific Non-Coding Regulatory SNPs Associated With the Risk of Coronary Artery Disease.”. Am J Hum Genet, vol. 108, no. 3, Mar. 2021, pp. 411-30, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.02.006.

Hartiala, Jaana A, et al. “Genome-Wide Analysis Identifies Novel Susceptibility Loci for Myocardial Infarction.”. Eur Heart J, vol. 42, no. 9, Mar. 2021, pp. 919-33, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa1040.

Watson, Adam W, et al. “Breast Tumor Stiffness Instructs Bone Metastasis via Maintenance of Mechanical Conditioning.”. Cell Rep, vol. 35, no. 13, Jan. 2021, p. 109293, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109293.

Conklin, Austin C, et al. “Meta-Analysis of Smooth Muscle Lineage Transcriptomes in Atherosclerosis and Their Relationships to In Vitro Models.”. Immunometabolism, vol. 3, no. 3, 2021, https://doi.org/10.20900/immunometab20210022.

Johnson, Michael D, et al. “CC16 Binding to α4β1 Integrin (VLA-4) Protects Against Infection.”. Am J Respir Crit Care Med, Dec. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202006-2576OC.

Romanoski, Casey E, et al. “Transcriptomic Profiles in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Associate With Disease Severity and Identify Novel Candidate Genes.”. Pulm Circ, vol. 10, no. 4, Oct. 2020, p. 2045894020968531, https://doi.org/10.1177/2045894020968531.

Merritt, Emily F, et al. “Transcriptional Profiling Suggests T Cells Cluster Around Neurons Injected With Toxoplasma Gondii Proteins.”. MSphere, vol. 5, no. 5, Sept. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00538-20.

Chang, Eugene H, et al. “RV Infections in Asthmatics Increase ACE2 Expression and Cytokine Pathways Implicated in COVID-19”. Am J Respir Crit Care Med, July 2020, https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202004-1343LE.

Stolze, Lindsey K, et al. “Systems Genetics in Human Endothelial Cells Identifies Non-Coding Variants Modifying Enhancers, Expression, and Complex Disease Traits.”. Am J Hum Genet, May 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.04.008.

Sajti, Eniko, et al. “Transcriptomic and Epigenetic Mechanisms Underlying Myeloid Diversity in the Lung.”. Nat Immunol, vol. 21, no. 2, Feb. 2020, pp. 221-3, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-019-0582-z.

Allan, Christopher M, et al. “An Upstream Enhancer Regulates Expression in a Tissue-Specific Manner.”. J Lipid Res, vol. 60, no. 4, Apr. 2019, pp. 869-7, https://doi.org/10.1194/jlr.M091322.

Krause, Matthew D, et al. “Genetic Variant at Coronary Artery Disease and Ischemic Stroke Locus 1p32.2 Regulates Endothelial Responses to Hemodynamics.”. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, vol. 115, no. 48, Nov. 2018, pp. E11349-E11358, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1810568115.

Link, Verena M, et al. “MMARGE: Motif Mutation Analysis for Regulatory Genomic Elements.”. Nucleic Acids Res, vol. 46, no. 14, Aug. 2018, pp. 7006-21, https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gky491.