Rate My Professor Karen Knapp

Dr Karen Knapp serves as Senior Teaching Fellow in Genetics in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Otago's Faculty of Biomedical Sciences. She completed her PhD in 2010 in the research group of Professor Norbert Sträter at Leipzig University, Germany, where her work involved the biochemical and structural characterization of a cancer drug target known as CD73. Following her PhD, Knapp undertook postdoctoral research from 2010 to 2013 in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Otago, specializing in the structural characterisation of viral and host protein complexes. Subsequently, from 2013 to 2015, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the North West Cancer Research Institute, Bangor University, United Kingdom, investigating DNA repair mechanisms and their implications in cancer development. In 2016, she joined the Bicknell Lab at the University of Otago as a postdoctoral research fellow, focusing her efforts on identifying and characterising novel DNA replication components, particularly those mutated in the rare Mendelian disorder Meier-Gorlin syndrome.

Dr Knapp's research specializations include genetic disorders and cancer, with contributions to significant publications such as 'Histones: Coming of age in Mendelian genetic disorders' published in the Journal of Medical Genetics in 2023 (co-authored with Nihar Naik, Sankalita Ray, Gijs van Haaften, and Louise S. Bicknell), 'A novel KNL1 intronic splicing variant likely destabilizes the KMN complex, causing primary microcephaly' in the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A in 2024 (with B. J. Fellows et al.), 'Recurrent de novo missense variants across multiple histone H4 genes underlie a neurodevelopmental syndrome' presented at the European Journal of Human Genetics in 2023 (with F. Tessadori et al.), and others including works on CASC5 variants and histone H4 roles in chromatin dynamics from Genetics Otago proceedings. In her teaching capacity, she delivers instruction in 200- and 300-level Genetics laboratories, runs 200-level tutorials within the Genetics Mātai Ira Teaching Programme, and contributes to papers such as GENE223 Developmental and Applied Genetics and GENE313 Medical Genetics. Furthermore, as the Pacific Island Liaison for Genetics in the Division of Sciences, she provides dedicated support to Pacific Island students pursuing Genetics studies.