Len Pennacchio

Senior Staff Scientist

DOE Joint Genome Institute

Genomic Technologies

Secondary Affiliation: Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology

Comparative and Functional Genomics

Building: 84, Room 240
Mail Stop: 84R0171
Phone: (925) 980-3711
Fax: (510) 486-4229
LAPennacchio@lbl.gov

Research Interests

Defining the vast landscape of gene regulatory sequences in the human genome.
Understanding how variation in regulatory sequences influences human disease/biology.
Assessing and exploiting next generation sequencing technologies for applications in both the energy and health sectors.

Selected Publications

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The Paradox of ‘Ultraconserved’ Enhancers: Perfect Sequence Conservation Not Required

March 30, 2021

The last common ancestor of humans and rodents lived more than 80 million years ago, and billions of changes in their respective DNA sequences have occurred over this vast timespan. Yet, intriguingly, there are a few hundred stretches of DNA in our genome that are still identical to the corresponding sequences in mice and rats. Generally, sequence conservation between distantly related species is an indication that the function the DNA serves is vitally important and highly sensitive to mutations. For example, most DNA sequences that encode proteins show at least moderate conservation in evolution. However, more than two-thirds of the “ultraconserved” sequences shared by humans and rodents are outside of protein-coding genes, raising the question of what led to their extreme level of conservation.

Three from Biosciences Area Named AAAS Fellows

November 24, 2020

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which was founded in 1848 and is the world’s largest general scientific society, announced that 489 of its members—among them nine scientists at Berkeley Lab—have been named Fellows. This lifetime honor, which follows a nomination and review process, recognizes scientists, engineers, and innovators for their distinguished achievements toward the advancement or applications of science.

The three newly named Fellows from the Biosciences Area are: Sanjay Kumar, a faculty scientist in the Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE) Division; Mary Maxon, the Associate Laboratory Director for the Biosciences Area; and Len Pennacchio, a senior scientist in the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology (EGSB) Division and the Deputy of Genomic Technologies at the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI).

Interpreting the Human Genome’s Instruction Manual

August 5, 2020

The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) collaboration was launched 17 years ago by the National Human Genome Research Institute with the goal of developing the tools and expertise needed to shed light on the 98% of our genome that does not code for proteins. Now in its final year, ENCODE has made huge advances thanks to the combined scientific and technological prowess of several hundred researchers at dozens of institutions. Leading the project for Berkeley Lab are Diane Dickel, Len Pennacchio, and Axel Visel, co-PIs of the Mammalian Functional Genomics Laboratory in Biosciences’ Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology (EGSB) Division. They are co-authors on 4 of the 15 new ENCODE papers published this week as part of a special collection in Nature.