Christopher Michael Grochowski

Assistant Professor

Email

christopher.grochowski@bcm.edu

Positions

Assistant Professor: HGSC: Faculty
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX, US

Education

BS from American University: 05/2011 - Washington, District of Columbia, United States; Biology, Religious Studies

MS from Rowan University: 05/2014 - Stratford, New Jersey, United States; Biomedical Science

PhD from Baylor College of Medicine: 01/2022 - Houston, Texas, United States

Postdoctoral Training at Baylor College of Medicine: 07/2023 - Houston, Texas, United States

Professional Interests

Complex genomic rearrangements (CGRs)
Copy number variation (CNV)
Genomic optical mapping and long-read sequencing technologies
Genomic disorders
Chromothripsis, chromoanasynthesis, and chromoplexy

Professional Statement

Christopher M. Grochowski is an Assistant Professor at the Human Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC) at Baylor College of Medicine, where he joined the faculty in 2023. His research is dedicated to understanding the genetic and genomic underpinnings of human disease, with a particular emphasis on complex genomic rearrangements (CGRs), copy number variation (CNV), and somatic mosaicism.

Trained in the laboratory of Dr. James R. Lupski, Dr. Grochowski has worked on the integration of cutting-edge technologies — including genomic optical mapping, long-read sequencing (PacBio and Oxford Nanopore), and droplet digital PCR — with classical cytogenetic and molecular methods to resolve structural variants to nucleotide-level resolution. His work has highlights the mechanisms driving chromothripsis, chromoanasynthesis, and chromoplexy events, and has advanced our understanding of mutational processes including FoSTeS/MMBIR, NAHR, NHEJ, and AAMR.

Websites

Publications

Selected Publications

Pande S, Dawood M, Grochowski CM. " Structural Variants: Mechanisms, Mapping, and Interpretation in Human Genetics " Genes (Basel). 2025 Jul ; 16 (8)
Pubmed PMID: 40869953.
Grochowski CM, Gibbs RA, Doddapaneni H. " Validation of Single-Nucleotide Mosaic Variants Through Droplet Digital PCR " Curr Protoc. 2024 May ; 4 (5) : e1041.
Pubmed PMID: 38774978.
Grochowski CM, Du H, Mehaffey MG, et al. " Inverted triplications formed by iterative template switches generate structural variant diversity at genomic disorder loci " Cell Genom. 2024 Jul ; 4 (7)
Pubmed PMID: 38908378.
CM Grochowski, ACV Krepischi, J Eisfeldt, H Du, DR Bertola, D Oliveira, SS Costa, JR Lupski, A Lindstrand, CMB Carvalho. " Chromothriptic event implicates a de novo pericentric and multiple paracentric inversions in a single chromosome causing Coffin-Siris Syndrome " Front Genet. 2021 ;
Pubmed PMID: 708348.
J Schuy, CM Grochowski, CMB Carvalho, A Lindstrand. " Complex genomic rearrangements: an underestimated cause of rare diseases " Trends Genet. 2022 ;
Pubmed PMID: 36055996.
Smolka M, Paulin LF, Grochowski CM, et al. " Detection of mosaic and population-level structural variants with Sniffles2 " Nat Biotechnol. 2024 Oct ; 42 (10) : 1571-1580.
Pubmed PMID: 38168980.
CM Grochowski, KM Loomes, NB Spinner. " Jagged1 (JAG1): Structure, expression, and disease associations " Gene. 2016 ;
Pubmed PMID: 26792320.

Memberships

American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG): (01/2014)

BCMPride: Faculty Advisor