Dr. Christopher Mason completed his dual B.S. in Genetics and Biochemistry (2001) from University of Wisconsin-Madison, his Ph.D. in Genetics (2006) from Yale University, and then completed post-doctoral training in clinical genetics (2009) at Yale Medical School while jointly a post-doctoral Fellow of Genomics, Ethics, and Law at Yale Law School (2009). He is currently an Associate Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, with appointments at the Tri-Institutional Program in Computational Biology and Medicine between Cornell, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University, the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center, and the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute.

The Mason laboratory is working on a ten-phase, 500-year plan for the survival of the human species on Earth, in space, and on other planets. To that end, we develop and deploy new biochemical and computational methods in functional genomics to elucidate the genetic basis of human disease and human physiology. We focus on novel techniques in next-generation sequencing and algorithms for tumor evolution, genome evolution, DNA and RNA modifications, and genome/epigenome engineering. We work closely with NIST/FDA to build international standards for these methods and ensure clinical-quality genome measurements and editing. We also collaborate with NASA to build integrated molecular portraits of genomes, epigenomes, transcriptomes, and metagenomes for astronauts, which help establish molecular foundations and genetic defenses for long-term human space travel.