In 2015, Tanner was the first graduate student to join the Michaelson Lab as part of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics. Tanner’s projects focused on the intersection of human language with neurodevelopment, through the study of population-level whole genome sequencing. As a key trait which distinguishes humans from our closest living relatives, Tanner was inspired to study the genetics of language, and is passionate about communicating science broadly. Outside of the lab, Tanner is devoted to his wife, dogs, podcasts and tabletop role-playing games.

Pulications

• Bahl E, Koomar T, Michaelson JJ. cerebroViz: an R package for anatomical visualization of spatiotemporal brain data. Bioinformatics. 2017 Mar 1;33(5):762-763. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btw726. PubMed PMID: 28011779; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5870797.

Presentations

• Tanner Koomar, J. Bruce Tomblin, Jacob Michaelson (2018) Whole genome sequencing in specific language impairment (SLI) exposes a shared genetic basis for language ability in autism spectrum disorders. Oral/Poster Presentation at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting
• Tanner Koomar, J. Bruce Tomblin, Jacob Michaelson (2017); Genes Implicated in Neurodevelopment Are Enriched for FOXP2 Binding Sites Associated With Language Ability. Oral/Poster Presentation at the World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics