Positions at NIH
- 1964-1966: Clinical and Research Associate, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), NIH
- 1998-2000: Director, Center for Maternal & Child Health, NICHD, NIH (and special advisor to the NICHD Director)
- 2000-2009: Scientific Director, Division of Intramural Research (DIR), NICHD, NIH
- 2000-2013: Senior Investigator and Head, Laboratory of Clinical and Developmental Genomics, DIR, NICHD, NIH
- 2013-present: Scientist Emeritus, NICHD, NIH
Biography
Owen M. Rennert, M.D., was head of NICHD’s Laboratory of Clinical and Developmental Genomics from 2009 to 2013 within DIR and served as NICHD scientific director from 2000 to 2009.
Dr. Rennert obtained his M.D. from the University of Chicago, School of Medicine in 1961. Thereafter, he did a year of pediatric residency (1961-62) at the University of Chicago, was a postdoctoral fellow in biochemistry (1962-62), and completed a second year of pediatric residency at the University of Chicago (1963-64). He received his M.S. in biochemistry in 1963, also from the University of Chicago.
Upon graduation, Dr. Rennert pursued a fulfilling and accomplished academic career. He joined NIH in 1964 as a research/clinical fellow at NINDS, where he stayed until 1966. He returned to NIH in 1998, serving as director of NICHD’s Center for Maternal & Child Health as well as special advisor to the NICHD Director. He became NICHD’s scientific director and head of the Lab of Clinical and Developmental Genomics in 2000. In 2009, he stepped down as scientific director to return full-time to his research. He retired from leading his lab in 2013.
Dr. Rennert's scientific career spans more than half a century and traverses both basic and clinical research. His significant contributions to the early development of biochemical genetics, particularly in the mucopolysaccharidosis and glycogen storage diseases and inborn metabolic disorders of copper, made him a pioneer in the field. His laboratory is responsible for the discovery of atypical copper metabolism in cultured skin fibroblasts derived from patients with Wilson's disease and Menke's disease. This research offered an in vitro platform for diagnosis, as well as a better understanding of the molecular genetics of these disorders.
Later, Dr. Rennert focused on the molecular genetics of endocrine disorders, in particular those caused by mutations of the luteinizing hormone receptor. At the time, his laboratory reported more than 60% of all known activating mutations of this receptor, thereby establishing it as the core U.S. laboratory for the diagnosis of familial male-limited precocious puberty, a disorder caused by these mutations.
Dr. Rennert is also among the founders and innovators of polyamine research. His early work established polyamines as a group of small cationic molecules that play critical roles in biological processes of health and disease, and his studies laid a solid foundation for a field that remains active today. He also investigated the basic biology and pathophysiology of several diseases, including cystic fibrosis and collagen disorders.
At NIH, Dr. Rennert started mapping the developmental genomics of male gonads and differentiating germ cells. He also established several sequence-based databases, including that of male gonad, human male germ cells, and long non-coding RNAs, all of which are freely accessible to the public. In more recent years, his laboratory took on the task of investigating the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and the molecular biology of the autistic brain. His laboratory also developed induced pluripotent stem cell models for several inherited disorders, including a selected subgroup of ASDs.
Selected Publications
Tu, J., Wan, C., Zhang, F., Cao, L., Law, P. W. N., Tian, Y., Lu, G., Rennert, O. M., Chan, W. Y., & Cheung, H. H. (2020). Genetic correction of Werner syndrome gene reveals impaired pro-angiogenic function and HGF insufficiency in mesenchymal stem cells. Aging Cell, 19(5), e13116. PMID: 32320127
Ziats, C. A., Rennert, O. M., & Ziats, M. N. (2019). Toward a pathway-driven clinical-molecular framework for classifying autism spectrum disorders. Pediatric Neurology, 98, 46–52. PMID: 31272785
Ziats, C. A., Grosvenor, L. P., Sarasua, S. M., Thurm, A. E., Swedo, S. E., Mahfouz, A., Rennert, O. M., & Ziats, M. N. (2019). Functional genomics analysis of Phelan-McDermid syndrome 22q13 region during human neurodevelopment. PloS One, 14(3), e0213921. PMID: 30875393
Liu, X., Campanac, E., Cheung, H. H., Ziats, M. N., Canterel-Thouennon, L., Raygada, M., Baxendale, V., Pang, A. L., Yang, L., Swedo, S., Thurm, A., Lee, T. L., Fung, K. P., Chan, W. Y., Hoffman, D. A., & Rennert, O. M. (2017). Idiopathic autism: Cellular and molecular phenotypes in pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons. Molecular Neurobiology, 54(6), 4507–4523. PMID: 27356918
Tu, J., Ng, S. H., Luk, A. C., Liao, J., Jiang, X., Feng, B., Lun Mak, K. K., Rennert, O. M., Chan, W. Y., & Lee, T. L. (2015). MicroRNA-29b/Tet1 regulatory axis epigenetically modulates mesendoderm differentiation in mouse embryonic stem cells. Nucleic Acids Research, 43(16), 7805–7822. PMID: 26130713
Ziats, M. N., Grosvenor, L. P., & Rennert, O. M. (2015). Functional genomics of human brain development and implications for autism spectrum disorders. Translational Psychiatry, 5(10), e665. PMID: 26506051
Mahfouz, A., Ziats, M. N., Rennert, O. M., Lelieveldt, B. P., & Reinders, M. J. (2015). Shared pathways among autism candidate genes determined by co-expression network analysis of the developing human brain transcriptome. Journal of Molecular Neuroscience, 57(4), 580–594. PMID: 26399424
Tu, J., Ng, S. H., Luk, A. C., Liao, J., Jiang, X., Feng, B., Lun Mak, K. K., Rennert, O. M., Chan, W. Y., & Lee, T. L. (2015). MicroRNA-29b/Tet1 regulatory axis epigenetically modulates mesendoderm differentiation in mouse embryonic stem cells. Nucleic Acids Research, 43(16), 7805–7822. PMID: 26130713
Luk, A. C., Gao, H., Xiao, S., Liao, J., Wang, D., Tu, J., Rennert, O. M., Chan, W. Y., & Lee, T. L. (2015). GermlncRNA: A unique catalogue of long non-coding RNAs and associated regulations in male germ cell development. Database: The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation, 2015, bav044. PMID: 25982314
Pang, A. L., Title, A. C., & Rennert, O. M. (2014). Modulation of microRNA expression in human lung cancer cells by the G9a histone methyltransferase inhibitor BIX01294. Oncology Letters, 7(6), 1819–1825. PMID: 24932239
Access Dr. Rennert’s full publications list from the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed® database.
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