GRADUATE STUDENT

Ryan obtained his BS in Molecular Biology at The University of Texas at Dallas. He performed undergraduate research with Jerry Shay, where he studied telomere length in high-performing centenarians.

Ryan joined the Banaszynski Lab in 2019. He is interested in endogenous retroelement regulation in developmental cell types.

Publications
Acute loss of MeCP2 in adult mice reveals transcriptional and chromatin changes that precede neurological dysfunction and inform pathogenic cascade
Bajikar SS, Zhou J, O’Hara R, Tirumala HP, Durham MA, Trostle AJ, Dias M, Shao Y, Wang W, Yalamanchili HK, Banaszynski LA, Wan Y-W, Liu Z, Zoghbi HY. (2025) Neuron 113, 380-395. [paper]

TASOR expression in naïve embryonic stem cells safeguards their developmental potential
Pinzon-Arteaga CA*, O’Hara R*, Mazzagati A, Ballard E, Hu Y, Pan A, Schmitz DA, Wei Y, Sakurai M, Ly P, Banaszynski LA‡, Wu J‡. (2024) Cell Reports 43, 114887. *These authors contributed equally. ‡ Co-corresponding authors [paper]

H3.3 contributes to chromatin accessibility and transcription factor binding at promoter-proximal regulatory elements in embryonic stem cells
Tafessu A*, O’Hara R*, Martire S*, Dube AL, Saha P, Gant VU, Banaszynski LA. (2023) Genome Biology, 24, 25. *These authors contributed equally. [paper]

Loss of heterochromatin at endogenous retroviruses creates competition for transcription factor binding
O’Hara R and Banaszynski LA. (2022) bioRxiv. [paper] 

ATRX promotes heterochromatin formation to protect cells from G-quadruplex DNA-mediated stress
Teng Y-C, Sundaresan A, O’Hara R, Gant VU, Li M, Martire S, Warshaw JN, Basu A, Banaszynski LA. (2021) Nature Communications 12, 3887. [paper]