Biography
Evgeny Kvon, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology at the University of California, Irvine. His research focuses on understanding how enhancers regulate gene expression over long genomic distances and how mutations in these regulatory elements contribute to developmental disorders and disease. Kvon received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Vienna in 2013, where he conducted his doctoral research at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.
Kvon is a recipient of the NIH Director's New Innovator Award (2022) and the NIH Pathway to Independence Award (2017). He was also awarded the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by HHMI (2015) and received the Vienna Biocenter Ph.D. Award (2013). His work on snake limb evolution, published in Cell in 2016, demonstrated how progressive loss of function in a limb enhancer contributed to limb loss during snake evolution and received widespread attention in both scientific and popular media.
Before joining UC Irvine in 2020, Kvon completed postdoctoral training at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the laboratories of Axel Visel and Len Pennacchio, where he developed methods for functional interrogation of human enhancer variants in vivo. His laboratory has developed novel genome editing, genomics, and imaging technologies to study long-range gene regulation and the molecular mechanisms by which enhancer mutations cause congenital disorders. Kvon serves as a grant proposal reviewer for the NIH, European Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Human Frontier Science Program, Swiss National Science Foundation, and Israel Science Foundation, and reviews for journals including Nature, Cell, Nature Genetics, and Nature Biotechnology.
Return to topEducation
- Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, University of Vienna, 2013
- B.Sc.+M.Sc. in Biology, Novosibirsk State University, 2008
Distinctions
- Hellman Fellowship Award, 2025
- NIH Director's New Innovator Award, 2022
- NIH Pathway to Independence Award, 2017
- Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by HHMI, 2015
- Vienna Biocenter Ph.D. Award, 2013
Areas of Expertise
- Developmental Gene Regulation
- Enhancer Function In Vivo
- Cis-Regulatory Element Characterization
- Transcription Factor Binding Dynamics
- Limb Development Mechanisms
- Noncoding Variant Pathogenicity
- Chromatin Architecture Dynamics
Recent Publications
- Hollingsworth EW, Liu TA, Alcantara JA, Chen CX, Jacinto SH, Kvon EZ, “Rapid and quantitative functional interrogation of human enhancer variant activity in live mice” (opens in new tab), Nature Communications, Nature Publishing Group, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–15, 2025.
- Bower G, Kvon EZ, “Genetic factors mediating long-range enhancer–promoter communication in mammalian development” (opens in new tab), Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, Elsevier BV, vol. 90, no. 102282, pp. 102282, 2025.
- Bower G, Hollingsworth EW, Jacinto SH, Alcantara JA, Clock B, Cao K, Liu M, Dziulko A, Alcaina-Caro A, Xu Q, Skowronska-Krawczyk D, Lopez-Rios J, Dickel DE, Bardet AF, Pennacchio LA, Visel A, Kvon EZ, “Range extender mediates long-distance enhancer activity” (opens in new tab), Nature, Nature Publishing Group, vol. 643, pp. 1–9, 2025.
- Chen Z, Snetkova V, Bower G, Jacinto S, Clock B, Dizehchi A, Barozzi I, Mannion BJ, Alcaina-Caro A, Lopez-Rios J, Dickel DE, Visel A, Pennacchio LA, Kvon EZ, “Increased enhancer-promoter interactions during developmental enhancer activation in mammals” (opens in new tab), Nature Genetics, vol. 56, pp. 1–11, 2024.
- Kvon EZ, Waymack R, Gad M, Wunderlich Z, “Enhancer redundancy in development and disease” (opens in new tab), Nature Reviews Genetics, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 324–336, 2021.
Contact Information
Website: https://www.kvonlab.org/
Email: ekvon@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-2801
Address: 4234 McGaugh Hall
Return to topThis profile was created with the help of AI.
Last updated on 5/29/2026.