2021 Election Candidates and Ballot

To cast your vote, you will need to log in at the link below using your GSA membership email address and password. You will also use your GSA membership email and password to log into SurveyMonkey Apply.

1. Once logged in, click Vote Now.
2. Click Apply.
3. Click 2021 Election Ballot.
4. Select one candidate in each slate.
5. Answer the bylaw update question.
6. Click Mark as Complete.

You will receive an email confirming your ballot has been submitted (please check the spam folder). If you have technical difficulties, email society@genetics-gsa.org.

Deadline to vote: November 26, 2021, 11:59 p.m. EST.

Access Ballot

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Tracy Johnson

Cecilia and Keith Terasaki Presidential Endowed Chair, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles

Candidacy Statement

I am honored to be considered to serve as Vice President of the Genetics Society of America. The GSA is uniquely poised to address some of the most important questions facing the scientific community. How can we leverage an explosion in technology to ask fundamental questions and impact health? How can we transform scientific training, communication, and advocacy? How can we achieve these goals with an eye toward diversity, equity, and inclusion? These questions present exciting opportunities for GSA.
My first research experience working in a Drosophila lab taught me the importance of genetically tractable systems to study fundamental questions. My group has leveraged the power of yeast genetics to decipher the detailed mechanisms of RNA splicing, splicing regulation, and the interconnections between nuclear processes. While model systems have been critical to revealing key biological insights, the emergence of new technologies such as -omics, gene editing, and high-resolution imaging, continues to transform the systems we use and the questions we ask. GSA conferences, publication policies, and engagement with funding agencies will help to advance groundbreaking science and drive discovery.
The Society is in an exciting position to support not only what science is done, but also who does it. When the American Association for the Advancement of Science released Vision and Change: A Call to Action, it challenged researchers to apply the same rigor to science education as we commit to research. The future of science, it argued, depends on a revolution in training. Members of the GSA have heeded this call through teaching innovations. As a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, I have witnessed, first-hand, the ability of innovative researchers to transform the future of science by engaging and retaining a diverse population of students, and I have personally worked with colleagues to integrate research and education [Evans et al. 2021, G3]. The Society’s commitment to education draws me to GSA leadership; I believe I bring unique strengths that will advance this mission.

Scientific excellence depends on a diversity of voices. Unfortunately, this is not reflected in science at large or in professional societies, despite their roles in advancing diversity and inclusion (Segarra et al. 2020). I have spent my career building an inclusive scientific environment at the campus and national levels and have been recognized for my effective leadership. I hope to bring this expertise and commitment to my work in the leadership of GSA. Furthermore, I am excited to build on existing GSA activities to support faculty at all stages, and particularly early career scientists.
Genetics offers solutions to the world’s most critical problems, e.g. disease, food insecurity, and climate change. There has never been a more important time to build trust with the public and find mechanisms for communication and engagement. My experience in outreach throughout my career, and most recently in my capacity as Dean of a large public university, puts me in a strong position to work with the Society to advance these goals.
I would be honored to work with the GSA members, leadership, and staff to build on a strong foundation and advance the goals of the genetics community.

Education and Research Experience

Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Research Fellow July 2003 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
Department of Biology
Research Mentor: Dr. John Abelson
Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology June 1996 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellow
University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Research Mentor: Dr. Michael J. Chamberlin
B.A. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology June 1991 University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Undergraduate Research Mentor: James T. Kadonaga

Professional Positions

Senior Associate Dean, David Geffen School of Medicine July 1, 2021-present
Dean, Division of Life Sciences September 2020-present University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Director and Chair, Biomedical Research Minor July 2017-June 2021 University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Professor, Dept. of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology July 2015 University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Associate Dean, Division of Life Sciences January 2015 University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Associate Professor July 2013 University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Department of Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology
Associate Professor July 2011 University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Division of Biological Sciences, Molecular Biology Section
Assistant Professor July 2003 University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Division of Biological Sciences, Molecular Biology Section

Honors and Awards

2022 Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award, 2021
Cell Press list of 100 Inspiring Black Scientists in America, 2020
Keith and Cecilia Terasaki Presidential Endowed Chair in Life Sciences, 2018–present
Life Sciences Award for Inclusive Excellence for Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, 2018
Academic Senate Award for Career Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, 2017
Excellence in Mentoring Keynote Speaker American Society of Cell Biology, 2016
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, 2014
Maria Rowena Ross Term Chair in Cell Biology and Biochemistry, 2014
Top 20 Women Professors in California, 2013
Chancellor’s Associates Faculty Excellence Award for Excellence in 2013 Undergraduate Teaching
PECASE (Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers), 2006
National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2005
Roy Campanella Humanitarian Award, Pasadena, CA, 2001
Elizabeth Ross Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1999–2000
Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1996–1999
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship, 1992–1996

Professional Activities

Academic Advisory Board, Cell Press, August 2021-present
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors Executive Board (Chair), Dec 2019–present
Organizer, CSHL RNA Processing Meeting, 2019–present
National Cancer Institute, Board of Scientific Counselors for Basic Research, 2018–present
RNA Society Nominations Committee Chair, Dec 2019–May 2020
UCLA Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee, 2018–2020
External Program review for Mol., Cell., & Dev. Biology, UC Santa Barbara, Jan 2018
U54 New Mexico State University-Fred Hutch Partnership for Advancement of Cancer Research Steering Committee, 2017–present
Co-Chair, 2018 Post-transcriptional Gene regulation Gordon Conference, 2016–2018
Chair, NIH Molecular Genetics A Study Section, 2016–2017
Steering Committee, ABRCMS (Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students), 2016–2019
Harvard MCO Program Reviewer and retreat keynote speaker, April 2016
HHMI Professors Executive Board (Elected office), Aug 2014-Dec 2016
Organizer of the Annual Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society Meeting, October 2015
Discussion leader, Post-transcriptional gene regulation Gordon Res. Conf, July 2014
Member, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, 2013–present
Molecular Genetics A Study Section, Center for Scientific Review, 2013–2017
RNA Society Board of Directors, 2011–2013
Session Chair, Cold Spring Harbor Eukaryotic RNA Processing Meeting, 2013
Session Co-Chair, American Society for Cell Biology Meeting, 2012
Session Chair and Introductory Speaker, RNA Society Meeting, 2012
Theme organizer of RNA session of the 2012 ASBMB (American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) Annual Meeting, 2011–2012
Consultant: Quality Education for Minorities (QEM), 2007–present
NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship Review Panel, 2006 & 2007
NSF Genes and Genomes Clusters Research Grant Panelist, Periodic
Genetics Society of America
RNA Society

Research Interests

Regulation of gene expression is crucial for every function carried out by the cell, from cell growth and proliferation to the ability of the cell to respond to its ever-changing environment. Hence, understanding cellular function and dysfunction is dependent upon deciphering these gene regulatory mechanisms. This is particularly challenging in the case of eukaryotic genes, which are often interrupted by long stretches of noncoding sequences (introns). These are removed from the newly synthesized RNA, and the remaining sequences (exons) are ligated together to form a mature messenger RNA. This process, pre-messenger RNA splicing, is carried out by the spliceosome made up of 5 small nuclear RNAs and over 100 proteins. The spliceosome undergoes dynamic and coordinated rearrangements in order to recognize splicing signals in the RNA and catalyze the splicing reaction. Remarkably, the spliceosome assembles onto the pre-mRNA co-transcriptionally, while the RNA polymerase is actively engaged with the chromatin template. This close spatial and temporal proximity of splicing and transcription raise the intriguing possibility that assembly of the spliceosome onto pre-mRNA may be influenced by transcription, and/or the state of the chromatin and vice versa; splicing may influence transcription and chromatin modification. The goal of our research is to decipher the workings of this elegant ribonucleoprotein machine. Moreover, we seek to understand how regulation of RNA splicing and other RNA processing reactions allows the cell to respond to its environment.

Website: https://johnsonlab.mcdb.ucla.edu/

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Mary Mullins

 

Vice Chair, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine; Assistant Dean for Junior Faculty Advancement, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Candidacy Statement

It is an exciting time in genetics with the continued advent of ‘omics’, single-cell approaches, and gene editing technology that take our science to new dimensions. It would be my great honor to serve the genetics community as the GSA Vice President at this time.

I have been a GSA member since I was a graduate student. I trained with preeminent geneticists, Dr. Gerald Rubin for my graduate studies in Drosophila at UC-Berkeley, and Nobel prize winner Dr. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard for my postdoc at the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen, Germany. In my postdoc, I embarked on a large-scale zygotic mutant screen in the zebrafish to identify key genes acting in embryonic development that was foundational to the zebrafish field. In my lab at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), we have performed a large-scale adult maternal-effect mutant screen in zebrafish. These genetic approaches, combined with genomics approaches to reveal the genes, have been a cornerstone of my research.

I am a strong proponent of model organism research and our model organism databases, working previously with GSA on this as Vice President of the International Zebrafish Society, and would amplify those efforts as a GSA leader. I had the pleasure to co-organize the GSA TAGC2020 conference, which brilliantly pivoted to virtual as the pandemic began and attracted even more participants. Our future has now changed and hybrid conferences with both in person and virtual will broaden the reach of GSA meetings and be more inclusive to the worldwide genetics community.

I am committed to training the next generation of scientists and would bring to GSA my experience in outreach, mentoring, and teaching at all levels from elementary and high school, undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and assistant professor level. I work closely with BioEYES, the GSA 2018 winner of the Elizabeth Jones Award for Excellence in Education, which brings hands-on genetics to the K-12 classroom. I have trained over 20 postdoctoral fellows and am active in training graduate students as chair of the UPenn DSRB graduate program. As Assistant Dean for Junior Faculty Advancement, I support assistant professors in advancing their independent research careers and achieving tenure.

With the reawakening of racial justice in the US, I have embraced a myriad of efforts to increase diversity and actively address systemic barriers at UPenn. I initiated our graduate program’s antiracism committee, a racial justice book club, and case study workshops to address microaggressions in academia. I am part of the ACT committee working towards antiracism culture change and equity at Penn Medicine. I co-chair the Combatting Racial Inequities Committee, surveying the racial/ethnic climate in UPenn graduate and postdoctoral programs and making recommendations to improve it. I would bring my knowledge and experience to the important efforts already underway at GSA to diversify and make welcome genetics and STEM, so all can thrive.

I believe that genetics, genomics, and science transcend political borders and can bring us together in our humanity and search for fundamental understandings of life and the cures for disease. It would be a pleasure to work towards GSA’s endeavors internationally too.

Education

1984: B.S., Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison (Summa Cum Laude)
1989: Ph.D., Biochemistry, University of California, Berkeley. Mentor: Dr. Gerald M. Rubin.

Professional Experience

1990: Postdoc, University of California, Berkeley. Mentor: Dr. Gerald M. Rubin.
1990-95: Postdoctoral research, Max Planck Institute, Tübingen, Germany. Mentor: Dr. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (Nobel Prize 1995). Establishment of the tools and performance of a large-scale zygotic screen for mutations specifically affecting embryonic development in the zebrafish.
10/1995: Assistant Professor, Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
7/2002: Associate Professor, Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
7/2009: Professor, Dept of Cell & Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
7/2013-present: Vice Chair, Dept of Cell & Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
7/2019-present: Assistant Dean for Junior Faculty Advancement, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Honors, Awards, Other Experience

1986-87: Graduate Opportunity Fellowship
1990-93: National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship
1993-95: Max Planck Society Fellowship
1995-97: University of Pennsylvania/Howard Hughes Medical Institute Start-up funds
1996: Co-Organizer, Keystone Meeting: Inductive Interactions during Vertebrate Embryogenesis
2001: University of Pennsylvania, Michael S. Brown Junior Faculty Research Award
2001-08: External Advisory Board of the Zebrafish International Resource Center, Eugene, OR
2003: Co-Organizer, Northeast Society for Developmental Biology Annual Meeting, Woods Hole, MA
2004: Co-Organizer of International Conference on Zebrafish Development and Genetics, Madison, WI
2005-present: Associate Editor of PLOS Genetics
2005-08: Co-director of Woods Hole course, Neural Development and Genetics of Zebrafish
2005-08: American Cancer Society, DDC study section member
2006: Humboldt Foundation, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award for sabbatical at EMBL, Germany
2006-12: Secretary for the Society of Developmental Biology (re-elected in 2009)
2003,2008,2012: NICHD, Laboratory of Genomics of Differentiation, External site visit review board member
2008: Chair and organizer of session, “Gene Expression and Epigenetics”, Society for Developmental Biology Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA
2009: Chair and organizer of session, ” Epigenetic Influences on Development”, Society for Developmental Biology Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA
2010: Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, ad hoc member of Scientific Advisory Committee
2010: Chair and session organizer, International Conference on Zebrafish Genetics and Development Madison, WI
2010: Chair of Plenary Session, Society for Developmental Biology Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM
2011: NICHD Scientific Vision Development Workshop, speaker and participant
2012-16: NIH, DEV-2 study section member
2012: Chair of session: Cell Growth and Regeneration, Society for Developmental Biology Annual
Meeting, Montreal, Canada
2013: Co-Organizer of the 5th Strategic Conference of Zebrafish Investigators, Asilomar, CA
2013: Vice Chair, NIH, DEV-2 study section
2014-present: PLOS Biology, Academic Editor
2014-17: Vice President, International Zebrafish Society
2014-16: Chair of NIH DEV-2 study section
2015: Co-Organizer, DCM/DPCPSI/OD (NIH) symposium “Linking Disease Model Phenotypes to Human Conditions”, September 10-11, 2015, Bethesda, MD. Gave closing remarks and recommendations.
2015-17: President’s Scientific Advisory Council, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole
2016: External reviewer of Training Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, Duke, NC
2016: Elected, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2017-18: President-elect, International Zebrafish Society
2017: Advisory Board, 10th European Zebrafish Meeting, Budapest Hungary
2017, 2019: Co-Organizer FASEB Conference, TGFβ signaling in Development and Disease, 2017 in Lisbon, Portugal. 2019 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
2018-19: President, International Zebrafish Society
2018: Chair, Graduate Program in Developmental, Stem Cell, and Regenerative Biology, UPenn
2019-2020: Past President, International Zebrafish Society
2020: Co-Organizer, Genetics Society of America (GSA), TAGC2020 conference online
2020-25: Board of Scientific Counselors, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
2021: Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN) external advisory board

Editorial Positions

Editorial Positions
Peer reviewer of manuscripts at: Cell, Science, Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, Nature Protocols, Developmental Cell, PLOS Biology, PLOS Genetics, Genes & Development, eLife, EMBO, Development, Genome Research, Genesis, Mechanisms of Development, Developmental Biology, Trends in Genetics, Developmental Dynamics, BioMed Central Developmental Biology.
2001-2021: Editorial board, Genesis
2002-Present: Editorial board: Birth Defects Research
2004-Present: Editorial board, Zebrafish
2006-Present: Editorial Advisor, BMC Developmental Biology
2005-Present: Associate Editor, PLOS Genetics
2014-Present: Academic Editor, PLOS Biology
2018-Present: Associate Editor, Reproduction

Memberships in Professional and Scientific Societies and Other Professional Activities

National

Member, Center for Reproduction and Research on Women’s Health, University of Pennsylvania
Member, Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Member, Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders, University of Pennsylvania
1986-present: Member, Genetics Society of America
1994-present: Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science
1995-present: Member, Zebrafish Nomenclature Committee
1997-present: Member, Society for Developmental Biology
2004-present: Member, American Society for Cell Biology
1996-2012: National Science Foundation ad hoc reviewer (1996-2000, 2003, 2006, 2007-2012)
1999: National Institutes of Health, Cell Development and Function 5 study section, ad hoc reviewer
2000: National Institutes of Health, Oral Biology and Medicine 2 study section, ad hoc reviewer
2001-2008: External Advisory Board of the Zebrafish International Resource Center, Eugene, OR
2001: National Institutes of Health, Mammalian Genetics study section, ad hoc reviewer
2003: National Institute of Child Health and Development, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, External review board member
2003: Phillip Morris, grant reviewer
2003: Yale Center for Musculoskeletal Disease Pilot Grant, Yale University, ad hoc reviewer
2005-2008: American Cancer Society, Development, Differentiation, and Cancer study section member
2005: NSF Panelist member: Developmental Mechanisms study section
2006-2009: March of Dimes ad hoc reviewer (2006, 2009)
2006: National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources study section, ad hoc reviewer
2006: New Jersey State Commission on Cancer Research study section member
2008: National Institute of Child Health and Development, Laboratory of Genomics of Differentiation (formerly Molecular Genetics), External site visit review board member
2009-2010: American Cancer Society, Development, Differentiation, and Cancer ad hoc grant reviewer
2009: NIH, DEV-1 study section, ad hoc grant reviewer
2010: NIH, Special Emphasis Panel, Oocytes and Embryos, study section member
2012: American Cancer Society, Senior Research Award, ad hoc grant reviewer
2012-16: NIH, DEV-2 study section member
2013: Vice Chair, NIH, DEV-2 study section
2014-present: Member, International Zebrafish Society
2014-16: Chair, NIH DEV-2 study section
2017: NIH SBIR ZRG1 EMNR-W study section panel
2018: NIGMS ESI MIRA study section panel
2019: Co-Chair, NIGMS ESI MIRA study section panel
2021: NIH SEP study section
2021: Chair, F05, NIH study section

International

2000: The Welcome Trust, United Kingdom, ad hoc grant reviewer
2004: Earth and Life Sciences Council, The Netherlands, ad hoc grant reviewer
2005: Riken Institute, Cell and Developmental Biology, Kobe, Japan, ad hoc reviewer
2006: Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, ad hoc grant reviewer
2008: National Research Agency, France (ANR, Agence Nationale de la Recherche), ad hoc grant reviewer
2009: European Commission, ad hoc reviewer
2009: Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Belgium, ad hoc grant reviewer
2009: The Israel Science Foundation, Israel, ad hoc grant reviewer
2012: BBSRC, United Kingdom, ad hoc grant review
2015: Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation grant Sweden, ad hoc grant reviewer
2016: The Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator, ad hoc grant reviewer
2017: The Wellcome Trust, grant review panel, London, UK
2018: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada 2018 Discovery
Grants, ad hoc grant reviewer
2019: The Wellcome Trust, ad hoc grant reviewer

Research Interests

The Mullins lab uses molecular-genetic analysis in the zebrafish to study fundamental processes of development and cell biology. Her lab is currently studying the molecular mechanism of signal transduction of a Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) pathway functioning in establishing the vertebrate body plan. Her group uses quantitative approaches to study the formation, function, and spatiotemporal regulation of a BMP morphogen gradient that specifies diverse cell types along the dorsal-ventral axis. In collaborative efforts using computational modeling combined with experimental tests, they have upended models of morphogen gradient formation. In a translational project, her group has used their BMP signaling assays to unravel the altered signaling mechanism of human disease gene mutations in a type I BMP receptor. Through forward genetic adult mutant screens in her lab in the zebrafish, she expanded her studies to include the maternal regulation of embryonic development, where she has discovered key regulators of egg and oocyte polarity, cell cleavage, and early embryonic patterning and morphogenesis.

Website: https://www.med.upenn.edu/mullinslab/

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Swathi Arur

 

Primary appointments: Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Division of Basic Science Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; Course Director, Foundations in Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Secondary appointments: Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, School of Health Professions, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX Associate Professor, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX

Candidacy Statement

It is an honor, and a privilege, to serve the GSA. I joined GSA as a postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Tim Schedl’s lab at Washington University School of Medicine in 2003. The International Worm Meeting organized by GSA in 2005 opened the world of C. elegans researchers to me, and revealed what a warm, wonderful, and collaborative community it was. The expansion of the worm community to envelope and fold into all the model system communities with the TAGC meetings, only serves to increase my commitment to serve GSA and its many initiatives. The resources provided by GSA for students and postdocs and the compassionate engagement of a community that truly wants to foster and amplify a diverse group of scientists led me to serve on the Board for the past three years. As the recent Director on the Board, it has been a privilege to serve alongside the early career scientists, the other board members, and watch the leadership integrate social consciousness, compassion, and empathy in all their decisions. As a secretary, I will continue to promote inclusion of all GSA members, advocate for early career scientists, and help drive and execute the vision of our members at large, of building a society that continues to support basic science, bring together scores of model organism researchers through myriad of meetings to freely exchange ideas, and foster dialogues on effective and ethical use of knowledge rooted in genetic editing.

Education

Degree-Granting Education

University of Delhi, New Delhi, India, BS, with Honors, 1994, Microbiology
Institute for Microbial Technology Punjab University, Punjab, India, MS, 1996, Microbiology All India Institute for Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, PHD, 2002, Microbiology

Postgraduate Training

Post Graduate Associate, Department of Physiology, Center for Vascular Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, 10/2000-11/2002
Post-Doctoral Associate, Department of Genetics, Washington University in St Louis, School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, 12/2002-2007
Instructor, Genetics, Developmental Biology and Cell Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, 2007-1/2010

Professional Service

Academic Appointments

2/2010-8/2016: Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
6/2010-8/2016: Assistant Professor, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX
2/2015-present: Associate Professor, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
9/2016-present: Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Division of Basic Science Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
9/2016-present: Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, School of Health Professions, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
9/2016-present: Associate Professor, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX

Administrative Appointments/Responsibilities

6/2015-9/2017: Program Director (authorized GSBS program), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
7/2021-present: Course Director, Foundations in Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Other Appointments/Responsibilities

7/2011-9/2015: Cancer Genetics Training Grant Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
11/2012- present: Member, Center for Reproductive Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
1/2015- present: Member, Program in Development, Disease and Therapeutics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston
1/2019-1/2022: Director, Genetics Society of America, Baltimore, MD
1/2020-1/2021: Executive Director at large, Genetics Society of America, Baltimore, MD
5/2020-present: Member, DDMT Executive Committee, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
8/2020-8/2023: Chair, Awards Committee, Genetics Society of America, Baltimore, MD
1/2021-12/2023: Advisory member, GSA Finance Committee, Genetics Society of America, Baltimore, MD
2023: Scientific Organizer, Emerging Experimental Organisms, Company of Biologists, UK
2023: Co-Chair, Gordon Research Conference in Developmental Biology, NH
2025: Chair, Gordon Research Conference in Developmental Biology, NH

Institutional Committee Activities

5/2011-7/2012: Steering Committee, Genes and Development Program
2012-2017: Department of Genetics, Research Exchange Seminar Series, Chair
9/2011-9/2013: Admissions Committee, Area Reviewer for Genes and Development Program
9/2012-9/2015: Curriculum Committee, Member
8/2013-8/2014: Alfred G. Knudson Outstanding Dissertation Award Committee, Member
9/2013-9/2016: Admissions Committee, Member
5/2014-9/2014: Retreat Organization Committee, Co-Chair
9/2014-9/2017: Odyssey Program Advisory Committee, Member
9/2015-9/2018: Mike Hogg Award and Lecture Committee, Member
6/2016-1/2017: Future for Science, Member
6/2016-12/2017: Faculty Search Committee, Chair
9/2016-present: Bridge Funding Committee, Member
2019-present: Distinguished Blaffer Lecture Seminar Series, Chair
8/2017-7/2020: Steering Committee, Genetics and Epigenetics Graduate Program, Member
2/2018-present: CPRIT CURE Summer Student Advisory Committee, Committee Member
8/2018-7/2020: Graduate Education Council, Committee Member
10/2019-10/2020: Institutional CV Committee, Member
4/2020-present: Enterprise Resiliency Committee Member, Member
5/2020- present: Department of Genetics, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, Committee Member
5/2020-present: TMC Think Tank- Research, Chair
6/2020: GSBS Task Force, Task Force Member
1/2021-present: Partnership for Careers in Cancer Science and Medicine committee, Member
2/2021-present: NIH Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) Program, Faculty Research Mentor
4/2021-present: John Mendelsohn Award for Faculty Leadership Award, Committee Member
08/2021-08/2024: Odyssey Program Advisory Committee, Committee Member

Honors and Awards

1997-2000: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India
2013-2014: Outstanding Faculty Member, Genes and Development, Genes and Development Program, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
2014-2018: Research Scholar, American Cancer Society
2016-2018: Anna Fuller Foundation Scholar, Anna Fuller Foundation
2016-2019: President’s Scholar, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
2017: 2017 MD Anderson Distinguished Research Faculty Mentor Award, MD Anderson Cancer Center
2017: Andrew Sabin Family Foundation Scholar, Andrew Sabin Family Foundation, 2017-2019 Faculty Educator of the Month, MD Anderson Cancer Center
2019-2023: Standing Study Section Member, NIH CSR/ CMIR
2020-2022: Chair, Awards Committee, Genetics Society of America
2020-present: Elected Fellow American Association of Advancement in Sciences
2021: Linda and Mark Quick Award for Basic Science
2023: Vice Chair, Gordon Research Society, Developmental Biology
2025: Chair, Gordon Research Conference, Developmental Biology

Research Interests

Research projects in the Arur Laboratory are focused on two major areas:

1) Unraveling the environmentally regulated mechanisms and molecules that control meiotic I progression in female germ cells. We use C. elegans as our model system for this work.

2) Identifying principles and players that regulate tumor progression upon metabolic signaling rather than through the increase in mutational burden. We use mouse and cultured cells as models for this work. These efforts should allow us to identify metabolic checkpoints impeding tumor growth.

Website: https://www.mdanderson.org/research/departments-labs-institutes/labs/arur-laboratory.html

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Rebecca Burdine

 

Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University

Candidacy Statement

I am honored to stand for election as Secretary for the GSA. I am currently finishing my terms as a GSA board member and having had first-hand experience with this organization’s leadership, I am eager to move into this important role. During my time on the board, I have helped with several GSA initiatives and have had the honor to be a GSA representative on the Council for Life Sciences (CLS). Given the impact of Covid on research and researchers, it has been inspiring to see the GSA and the CLS advocating for us all at all levels, work I hope to continue as GSA Secretary. The Secretary position is important as this person serves as an ambassador for GSA and our programs. The Secretary also works with the President, Vice-President and other Executive members to help achieve consensus and bring a ‘big picture’ mindset to deliberations. Given my experience with GSA to date, and my enthusiasm for GSA’s programs and advocacy work, I feel I am uniquely positioned to transition to this role and hit the ground running.
In general, I am dedicated to advancing scientific literacy for everyone, through outreach and science communication. As researchers, we have a duty to educate the public on the power of genetic approaches and help them appreciate the promise of our research in extending our understanding of diseases and disorders. As a parent to a child with a rare genetic disorder, I know the power in genetics to understand and find potential treatments for these disorders. As a scientist, I’ve observed first-hand how clear communication can help non-scientists better understand their own medical issues or those of their children. As a researcher, I know the excitement around our work is often tempered by issues surrounding funding, equity, and work-life balance. As Secretary, I will continue to contribute to the GSA communication committee and to efforts to promote work-life balance in the research community. I will continue to support programs that enrich our community by promoting diversity at all levels. Finally, I will continue to advocate for policies that reflect what the research community needs to be successful.
Thank you for your consideration of my candidacy and I welcome your support.

Education

BS, Western Kentucky University (1990); PhD, Yale University, Department of Cell Biology (1997)

Career Summary

Postdoctoral Training: New York University Medical School, Skirball Institute, with Alexander F. Schier (1998-2002). Faculty Appointments: Assistant Professor (2003-2013), Associate Professor with tenure (2013-2020), Professor (2020-present) Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University.

Honors and Awards

HHMI Predoctoral Fellowship (1991- 1996); Anna Fuller Fund Fellow in Molecular Oncology (1997); Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Fellowship (1998-2001); 44th Mallinckrodt Scholar, Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation (2003-2006); National Academies Education Fellow in the Life Sciences (2013-2014); National Academies Education Mentor in the Life Sciences (2016-2017); American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow (elected 2018)

Professional Service Activities

Board Member Appointments: Genetics Society of America (2019-2021); International Zebrafish Society, IZFS (2016-2022); International Society of Differentiation (2018-2024); Angelman Syndrome Foundation (2019 – present)
Advisory Councils/Foundations/Committees: Zebrafish Tilling Consortium Advisory Board (2008-2013); Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics, Founding Member and Chief Scientific Officer (2008-2016); NICHD Developmental Biology, Genetics, and Teratology Branch Expert Panel Member (2010); Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics Australia, Scientific Advisory Board (2011-2015); NICHD Scientific Vision Development Workshop, invited participant (2011); Pitt Hopkins Research Foundation, Chief Science Officer (2012-2018); Ovid Therapeutics, Consultant and Clinical Trial Steering Committee (2016-current); Angelman Syndrome Natural History Study, Steering Committee Chair (2017-current); Angelman Syndrome Foundation, Scientific Advisory Board (2007-2011; 2018 – current); Perlara, Scientific Advisory Board (2017-2019); Advisory Board for the Zebrafish International Resource Center (2018-current); NIH ORIP Workshop on Validation of Animal Models and Tools for Biomedical Research – Co-chair Zebrafish session (2020); Angelman Syndrome Community Advisory Board (with EURODIS, 2020 – present)
Editorial Activities: Cell Reports, editorial board (2012-current); International Zebrafish Society newsletter, editor (2016-current); Zebrafish, editorial board (2017-present);
Meeting Organization: Previous: Strategic Conference for Zebrafish Investigators, organizing committee (2013, 2015); Society for Developmental Biology Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting, co-organizer (2007, 2015); National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education, organizer (2015); 12th International Zebrafish Development and Genetics Conference in conjunction with the TAGC meeting, organizing committee and TAGC community representative (2016). Current: NICHD Structural Birth Defects Meeting steering committee (2021-2022); FASEB SRC The Biology of Cilia and Flagella, co-organizer (2017-2022).
Review Boards: NIDDK Center for PKD Research Panel (Ad Hoc, 2005, 2010); NIGMS Special Emphasis Panel – MBRS Support of Competitive Research (Ad Hoc, 2007); Subject Matter Expert, Stage 1 Review NIH Challenge Grants (2009); NICHD IRG Developmental Biology Subcommittee (Ad Hoc, 2009); NICHD Special Emphasis Panel for Program Project Review (2010); NICHD Developmental Basis of Structural Birth Defects P01 Review (2011); Special Emphasis Panel for Zebrafish Research Tools and Techniques (2012); NSF IOS Animal Development & Evo/Devo Panel (2012, 2014, 2015); U. Penn Developmental Biology Training Grant, External Reviewer (2016); NICHD, IRG Developmental Biology Subcommittee (2012-2018). NHLBI, Cardiovascular Differentiation and Development Study Section (Ad Hoc, 2021)

Research Interests

My research focuses on left-right patterning and understanding how TGF-beta signaling shapes organ morphogenesis in zebrafish. More recently, our studies have expanded into modeling human diseases and disorders including RASopathies, ciliopathies, and Idiopathic Scoliosis.

Website

https://scholar.princeton.edu/burdinelab and https://twitter.com/rburdine1

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Amanda Larracuente

 

Associate Professor, Department of Biology, University of Rochester

Candidacy Statement

I am thrilled to be one of the nominees for a position on the GSA Board of Directors. I am an evolutionary geneticist working primarily in Drosophila. The GSA has been a major part of my scientific career since I was a graduate student and now also has an important influence on the trainees in my lab. I am running for the GSA Board of Directors because I love this society, particularly its role in supporting rigorous science, a collaborative community, and junior scientists. I am excited to have the opportunity to help shape GSA’s future.

I am an active member of the Drosophila and the Population, Evolutionary, and Quantitative Genetics communities, and I regularly participate in GSA conferences. My previous service to the GSA has been very rewarding: I have served on GSA’s DeLill Nasser for Professional Development in Genetics and Larry Sandler Memorial Lecture Award committees, which recognize outstanding trainees in our community. I twice co-organized the GSA-sponsored regional Great Lakes Meeting of Evolutionary Genomics (GLAM EvoGen), and I am on the editorial board of GENETICS.

My research background is in Drosophila evolutionary genetics and genomics. The work in my lab aims to understand how selfish genetic elements shape genome evolution. Our research is interdisciplinary: we combine genomics, molecular genetics and cytogenetics, and population genetic models to study genomic repeats abundant in and around centromeres and on sex chromosomes. We benefit from the expansive Drosophila genetic toolkit, databases, and the genomic technologies that allow us to study natural populations and species outside of the traditional model organisms. I strongly advocate for the support and accessibility of these tools and resources.

I am passionate about mentoring and undergraduate education. At the University of Rochester, I helped create, and am the advisor for, the undergraduate major in computational biology and I co-chair the Goergen Institute for Data Science working group in life and biomedical data science. These roles allow me to develop curriculum and interact with outstanding students and researchers with diverse interests in genetics and genomics. I look forward to opportunities to contribute to GSA initiatives that engage students and foster collaboration between educators across our community.

I have demonstrated a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion through my advising and outreach in my local community. I would like the opportunity to make an impact at the society level. If elected, I would support the expansion of existing GSA efforts to broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in the society and contribute to the professional development of trainees. I look forward to discussing issues of inclusion and accessibility more broadly; to think creatively about engaging scientists from diverse geographic regions, institutions, and backgrounds; and to ensure that GSA meetings and programs represent, and are accessible to, the diversity of excellent geneticists in our community.

The GSA strives to support the professional development of geneticists, foster collaboration, and advocate for science and the community. I hope to advance this mission and further serve my community on the Board of Directors.

Education

Ph.D. Genetics, Cornell University, 2003-2010
B.S. Biology, Canisius College 2003

Career Summary

Faculty Positions Held

Associate Professor (7/2020 – present)
Stephen Biggar and Elisabeth Asaro Fellow in Data Science (8/2017 – 6/2020)
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of Rochester (1/2015 – 6/2020)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Presgraves Lab, University of Rochester (3/2011 – 12/2014)
Postdoctoral Associate, Page Lab, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (12/2009 – 2/2011)

Honors and Awards

2000-2003: Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Canisius College
2003-2004: SUNY Fellowship, Cornell University
2004-2005: GAANN Fellowship, Cornell University
2007-2009: National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant
2008: DeLill Nasser Award for Professional Development in Genetics
2012-2015: Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow
2017-2020: Stephen Biggar and Elisabeth Asaro Fellow in Data Science; 3 year appointment
2018-2023: NSF CAREER Award

Selected Professional Service

Associate editor Molecular Biology and Evolution 2017-current
Associate editor GENETICS 2020-current
Guest Editor, PLoS Genetics 2017
Guest Editor, PNAS 2019,2020
Peer reviewer for 24 journals
NIH Genome Variation and Evolution member (2021-2027)
NIH Genes Genomes and Genetics panelist 2021
NSF panelist 2016, 2019, 2020; ad hoc 2016, 2019, 2021
NIH NIGMS MIRA ESI 2019 panelist
NSF postdoc fellowship, broadening participation panelist 2019
Larry Sandler Award committee, Genetics Society of America 2019, 2021
Walter Fitch prize committee, Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2019
DeLill Nasser award committee, Genetics Society of America 2019-2021
Council nomination committee; Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2021
Flybase community advisory group 2014-current
Community connections discussion leader at TAGC, Systems Biology and Genomics 2020

Selected University of Rochester service

Advisor and Track coordinator for major/minor in Computational Biology
Data Science Biology Track Masters Program advisor 2019-present
Data Science Biology Track major advisor 2019-present
Co-chair, Goergen Institute for Data Science working group on life and biomedical data science
Genomics Research Center Executive Committee 2020-present
Member, Center for Biomedical Informatics
Steering committee Goergen Institute for Data Science
Faculty search committees, Biology Department (5)
Search committee, Director for the Goergen Institute for Data Science 2018-2020
Strategic planning committee, data science 2017, Biology department 2020-present
Rochester Early Medical Scholars (REMS) Interviewer 2019-2020
Member, University Faculty Advisory Council 2016-2017

Research Interests

Conflict arises within genomes when genetic elements fail to play by the same rules. Selfish genetic elements (e.g. transposable elements, meiotic drivers, satellite DNAs) create conflict when they gain a transmission advantage to the next generation, often at a cost to the host. My lab’s long-term interests are in discovering mechanisms used by these selfish genetic elements to cheat and their impacts on the evolution of genomes and gametogenesis. Our focus is on the large blocks of rapidly evolving repeats that comprise most eukaryotic centromeres, telomeres, and sex chromosomes—satellite DNAs (satDNAs). SatDNAs play important roles in chromosome segregation and heterochromatin formation, but they also have the capacity to be selfish in the female germline, where there is an opportunity for centromeres to cheat their way into the egg. Misregulating satDNA is associated with genomic instability, mitotic defects, cancer, and aging phenotypes, but we know little about satDNAs because of their repetitive structure. Recent advances in sequencing and genome editing technologies make it possible to make progress towards understanding satDNA biology. My lab integrates methods in genomics, modeling and empirical population genetics, cytogenetics and molecular biology to study selfish repetitive sequences involved in intragenomic conflicts.
Our recent work has centered on approaches for assembling repetitive genome regions in D. melanogaster and closely-related species and the functional genomics of tandem repeats. We recently discovered that satellite DNAs are regulated by the dual stranded piRNA pathway in the Drosophila ovary. This pathway, and presumably the satDNA-derived piRNAs, contribute to heterochromatin formation in the early embryo.

Website: http://blogs.rochester.edu/larracuente/

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Matthew Rockman

Professor, Department of Biology and Center for Genomics & Systems Biology, New York University

Candidacy Statement

One of the most satisfying moments in my career as a researcher and educator was the day that my lab’s first PhD student, Taniya Kaur, saw her work – an experimental demonstration that C. elegans lacks recombination hot spots – accepted for publication in GENETICS. The GSA journals, with their devoted academic editors and peer reviewers, have long been the very best venues for work that will stand the test of time, from the first page of volume 1 (Bridges 1916) to today. I’m proud to have contributed papers in molecular, quantitative, and population genetics to our GSA journals.

I’ve been fortunate to serve the GSA as reviewer, associate editor, conference organizer (PEQG), and program committee member (C. elegans). I am asking for your vote to have the opportunity to help steward the Society through the coming years as a member of the Board of Directors.

My priorities as a director would be to preserve the Society’s longstanding strengths – journals, conferences, and professional development programs – while pushing to continue progress along newer paths, especially in the directions of access and education. The Society does a superb job in recognizing the important role we have to play in genetics education, through its awards and online resources, and I believe that there is room to expand this role. The conventional high-school and undergraduate genetics curricula, with their emphasis on Mendel and DNA, leave our students unable to understand socially important developments in contemporary human genetics. As population and quantitative genetics become increasingly present in popular discourse (via polygenic prediction and ancestry testing, for example), the need to update biology education increases in parallel. At NYU, I have revamped two of our large courses, Human Genetics (a non-majors course) and Principles of Biology II (the introductory majors course covering genetics and evolution) to foreground quantitative genetics concepts and combat the genetic determinism that is the implicit model for so many students. I hope to work with the board, and the members of the Education and Public Communication Committees, to help the Society find its voice in the public understanding of contemporary genetics.

Unusually among C. elegans geneticists, I lack an academic pedigree connection to the C. elegans community. As something of an outsider at the start, I benefited enormously from the collegiality of the worm genetics field. Strangers I met at the GSA worm meetings, now close colleagues, went out of their way to help me learn, sharing expertise and reagents. I believe that this commitment to our shared research goals makes the GSA community exemplary among biology societies. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the Society through service on the board.

Education

B.S. in Geology and Geophysics and Organismal Biology, Yale University (1997); Ph.D. in Biology, Duke University (2004), with advisor Gregory A. Wray.

Career Summary

Fulbright Fellow, Department of Botany and Zoology, Australian National University (1998-1999). Postdoctoral training: Lewis-Sigler Institute for Genomics, Princeton University, with Leonid Kruglyak (2004-2008). Faculty Appointments: Assistant, Associate, Full Professor, Department of Biology and Center for Genomics & Systems Biology, New York University (2008-present).

Honors and Awards

NYU Arts and Sciences Teaching Innovation Award (2021); NYU College of Arts and Sciences Golden Dozen Award (for undergraduate teaching) (2015); NSF CAREER Award (2014-2019); Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar (2009-2013); Jane Coffin Childs Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2005-2008); NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (1999-2002); Fulbright Fellowship (1998-1999); Hammer Prize and Wilde Prize, Yale University (1997).

Professional Service

Genetics Society of America: Co-organizer, Population, Evolutionary, and Quantitative Genetics (PEQG) Conference (Madison, 2018); Organizing committee, International C. elegans Meeting (Los Angeles, 2013, 2015). Associate Editor, G3, 2018-present. Referee for G3 and GENETICS.
Elsewhere: Program Officer, Division of Evolutionary Developmental Biology, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (2019-2022). Scientific Advisory Committee, CeNDR, the C. elegans Natural Diversity Resource (2016-present). Co-organizer and host (2011-2017), New York Area Worm Meeting. Co-organizer (2015-2018, 2020) and host (2020), New York Area Population Genomics Meeting. Organizer, Darwin Public Lecture, New York University (2012, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2021). Manuscript referee for many society and open-access journals. Ad hoc and sometimes panel reviewer for NIH (GVE and GGG) and NSF (DEB, IOS, OCE). Member of the NYU College of Arts and Sciences Committees on Academic Standards (2015-2018), Undergraduate Curriculum (2013-2016), and Foundations of Scientific Inquiry (2012-present).

Research Interests

We study the relationship between the molecular, cellular, and developmental mechanisms that generate organismal-level phenotypes and the population-level factors that shape variation and evolution of those phenotypes.
Our study organisms are nematodes and polychaetes. Our work in C. elegans and its relatives allows us to use the awesome power of worm genetics to understand the causes of heritable phenotypic variation at the molecular and population levels. Some of our studies pinpoint the molecular alleles underlying phenotypic variation, leading us to describe new genes or ascribe new functions to well-studied genes. Other studies address the evolutionary causes for patterns of variation, particularly the role of linkage and mating system in shaping the distribution of genetic variation. In parallel, we have developed a marine polychaete, Streblospio benedicti, as an experimental model for the evolution and quantitative genetics of development. We use forward genetics to discover the molecular and evolutionary causes of radical variation in embryonic and larval development in this species. An emerging theme in our work on both nematodes and polychaetes is the ubiquitous influence of maternal genetic effects on phenotypic variation in early development. We are pursuing experimental, computational, and analytical investigations of variation and evolution of traits affected jointly by maternal- and zygotic-effect loci. Our experimental research is fueled by our parallel work on breeding designs for quantitative genetic studies of laboratory organisms. Stay tuned for a particularly lovely panel of inbred lines of an obligately-outcrossing Caenorhabditis species!

Website:https://rockmanlab.bio.nyu.edu/

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Celeste Berg

 

Professor, Department of Genome Sciences and Co-Director, Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Washington

Candidacy Statement

I am honored to be nominated as a member of the GSA Board of Directors, in part because our field can produce powerful impacts on basic science, translational applications, educational outcomes, government policy, and public understanding of science. I am passionate about each of these areas and can provide knowledge and expertise to further these goals.

As a GSA Board member, I envision three main mechanisms to enhance the field.

First, we can strengthen our communities by continuing to offer shared spaces for all genetic systems as well as model-organism-specific opportunities for meeting and networking. By capitalizing on digital platforms, we can increase international interactions. As part of this effort, we should establish policies that demand diversity and inclusion, both at the conference organizational level and in identifying speakers. We should encourage recognition of emerging model systems, either through specific workshops or in conjunction with established conferences. Finally, we should facilitate participation by budding geneticists through subsidized memberships and by welcoming their new ideas for workshops or other society activities.

Second, as a research tool, genetics has provided exceptional insight into biological processes. When we share resources, we improve rigor and reproducibility within sub fields, and by applying knowledge from one system to another (e.g., cloning, transposons, CRISPR), we produce tremendous advances for both basic and applied research. Genetics and G3 are outstanding venues for sharing, as are our national meetings. Another way to advance sharing is to develop a clearinghouse for ideas and methods. Our model organism databases have established the foundation for such sharing, but these resources face challenges. If we create working groups that address specific aspects of the problem, such as identifying a universal language for describing genes in different species, and these working groups offer the perspective of all stakeholders, we can advance our knowledge and research capabilities.

Third, we have a responsibility to train the next generation of geneticists and to educate the public so they can make informed choices throughout their lives. By challenging our trainees to produce videos and other tools that serve the public, and by honoring those who produce the clearest materials, we can impact both the field and society.

Education

1980 – 1986: Yale University, New Haven, CT, Ph.D. (1986) Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
1972 – 1977: University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, B.A. (1977) Chemistry, B.A. (1977) Environmental Studies
Honors on the Thesis for developing and teaching a course entitled “A Scientific Approach to Selected Environmental Problems”

Career Summary

2020 – present: Co-Director, Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
2006 – present: Professor, Department of Genome Sciences and Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
2001 – 2006: Associate Professor, Department of Genome Sciences and Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
1997 – 2001: Associate Professor, Department of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
1990 – 1996: Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
1986 – 1989: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Baltimore, MD
1980: Research Assistant, Department of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
1977 – 1979: Research Assistant, Research and Development, Teledyne McCormick-Selph, Hollister, CA

Honors

2019: Sigma Xi, Full Member
2003 – 2004: National Science Foundation, Special Creativity Grant
1991 – 1994: March of Dimes, Basil O’Connor Scholar
1986 – 1989: American Cancer Society, Postdoctoral Fellow
1986: Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, Summer Fellow
1986: Carnegie Institution of Washington, Board of Trustees Fellow
1984: Yale University Scholar
1981: National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship Honorable Mention
1980 – 1983: NRSA Training Grant in Developmental Biology
1977: University of California, Santa Cruz, Honors on the Thesis
1977: University of California, Santa Cruz, Community Service Award for state-wide efforts to protect the California coastline
1976: Regents of the University of California, Leadership Award
1972 – 1977: California State Scholarship, National Merit Scholar, and Bank of America Regional and State Science and Mathematics Awards

Professional Organizations

American Society for Cell Biology

1990: Congressional Liaison Committee
1984: Member

American Association for the Advancement of Science

1990: Member

Society for Developmental Biology

2001, 2014: Local Organizer, SDB National Meeting
2012, 2014: Co-organizer, Grant Workshop for Young Investigators, SDB National Meeting
2009 – 2011: Co-organizer, Northwest Regional Developmental Biology Meeting
1992 – 1998: Co-organizer, SDB National Meetings
1995 – 1998: Northwest Regional Representative, SDB Board of Trustees
1992 – 1995: Young Member-at-Large, SDB Board of Trustees
1983: Member

Genetics Society of America

2017 – 2020: Regional Representative, Drosophila Governing Board
2014 – 2018: DeLill Nasser Travel Award Review Committee
2011 – 2012: Co-organizer, National Drosophila Conference
1991, 1999, 2009: Session Chair, National Drosophila Conference
1999 – 2005: Nominating and Award Committees
1994 – 1996: President-elect, President, Past-President, Drosophila Governing Board
1991 – 1994: Regional Representative, Drosophila Governing Board
1986: Member

Special Review Responsibilities

2021 – present: Biology of Neoplasia Training Grant, External Advisor
2018 – 2022: NIH, NIGMS Council
2017 – present: The Royal Society, Open Biology Editorial Board, Member
2015, 2016: NIH, MIRA Study section, Co-Chair (SRO, Dr. Brian Pike)
2014 – 2016: UW Royalty Research Fund, Regular member
2013 – 2015: NIH, DEV1 Study Section, Chair (SRO, Dr. Jonathan Arias)
2012: NICHD Site Visit, Cell Biology and Metabolism (Review Co-Chairs: Drs. Laurinda Jaffe and Barbara Hempstead)
2011 – 2013: NIH, DEV1 Study Section, Regular member (SROs, Drs. Cathy Wedeen, Jonathan Arias)
2010, 2014, 2015: NSF, Developmental Mechanisms Panel, Regular Member (Program Head, Dr. Steve Klein)
2010 – 2014: University of Washington Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee (UW ESCRO), Member
2007 – 2009: University of Washington Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee (UW ESCRO), Inaugural Chair
2006, 2009: NIH, DEV1 Study Section, Ad hoc member (SRA, Drs. Sherry Dupere, Cathy Wedeen)
1998 – 2006: NSF, Developmental Mechanisms Panel, Regular Member (Program Head, Dr. Judy Plessett)
2002: NICHD Site Visit, Cell Biology and Metabolism (Review Co-Chairs: Drs. Ken Zaret and Manuel Buchwald)
1999: NCI Site Visit, Division of Cancer Genetics (Review Co-chairs: Drs. Stan Korsmeyer and Max Cooper)
1995: NSF and NIH, Blue Ribbon Panel (3 members). We evaluated the status of the U.S. Drosophila Stock Centers and projected future roles.
1994 – 1995: NIH, Biology II Study Section, Ad hoc member (SRA, Dr. Camille Day)
1990 – present: Ad hoc reviewer for NIH, NSF, ACS, SDB, AHA, MOD, and NCI

Research Interests

My lab investigates the mechanisms that regulate tube formation, a fundamental process involved in shaping many animal organs. Using the Drosophila ovary as a model system, we have identified and characterized genes and signaling pathways that determine whether patches of cells in the follicular epithelium form, seal, and elongate tubes. This system is an excellent model for other tube forming processes that occur by “wrapping”, such as neural tube formation in most vertebrates.
During my career we have developed the tools and resources to explore tube formation, with the goal of integrating our understanding of this process at many levels. Our synthesis links the molecular mechanisms and physical forces that drive shape change, the genetic variation and cellular behaviors that determine tube number, size, and shape, and the evolutionary and environmental factors that alter these processes. Through collaborations with Dr. Daniel Kiehart at Duke we developed imaging technologies for monitoring and manipulating cell behaviors. With Drs. Michael MacCoss and Jay Shendure in Genome Sciences at UW, we have analyzed protein and RNA abundance in small populations of cells that either regulate or form the tubes. With Dr. Dana Miller in Biochemistry at UW, we have explored environmental factors that impact tubulogenesis. And with Dr. Miriam Osterfield at UTSW in Dallas and Dr. Bob Waterston and LaDeana Hillier at UW, we are exploring the mechanisms of tube formation in three other dipteran species with unusual tube-forming properties.
Overall, our studies reveal genes and processes that regulate cell fate, cell movement, and tissue remodeling; thus, our work gives insight into fundamental mechanisms controlling tube formation.

Website: http://depts.washington.edu/cberglab/wordpress/

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Patricia J. Wittkopp

 

Chair, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Professor, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan

Candidacy Statement

I am excited to be nominated for the Board of Directors of the Genetics Society of America. I believe that scientific societies play a critical role in science by creating opportunities for scientific exchange, advocating for changes in science and society, and supporting the culture of a field. As a member of the GSA Board of Directors, I would be an advocate for early career researchers and enhancing the diversity and inclusiveness in our field. As a first-generation college student and woman in science, I know first-hand how unwritten rules, expectations, and assumptions can create barriers and limit opportunities for some more than others. I would also be an advocate for genetics education, for conferences that maximize interactions and opportunity for researchers at all levels, and for GSA using its platform (alone and in collaboration with other societies) to advocate for societal changes supported by its members.

The GSA was the first professional society I joined as a graduate student more than twenty years ago and the “fly meeting” was where I gave my first professional presentation and developed many scientific connections, collaborations, and friendships. I’ve since had the pleasure of participating in many GSA supported conferences, including Drosophila Research Conferences, The Allied Genetic Conference, and the Population, Evolutionary, and Quantitative Genetics Conference, as a contributing attendee, invited speaker, session chair, plenary presenter, New Faculty Discussion panelist, and poster judge. My lab members and I have published our work in GENETICS and G3, and I have served as an associate editor for GENETICS since 2018. I worked with GSA leadership as a member of the GSA Education committee from 2012 to 2015, which aligned well with my passion for teaching genetics and encouraged me to publish teaching materials in the Genetics Society of America Peer-Reviewed Education Portal (GSA PREP). More recently, I served on the GSA Nominating committee in 2017. If elected, I will bring these experiences, as well as my interdisciplinary research perspective grounded in genetics and experience from service in other scientific societies including the PanAmerican Society of Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Founding Council member, Education Officer), Society for the Study of Evolution (Elected Councilor), and Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (Symposium Selection Committee, Faculty Awards, External Advisor to Council) to the GSA board.

As a researcher, I study the genetic basis of trait differences within and between species, with an emphasis on the regulation of gene expression, in collaboration with members of my laboratory. Both Drosophila and Saccharomyces species are used as model systems in this work, integrating methods from molecular and developmental biology, population and quantitative genetics, and genomics and bioinformatics. For example, we use Drosophila pigmentation to understand how gene expression and higher order traits evolve, comparative genomics in both Drosophila and Saccharomyces species to determine how regulatory networks have changed over time, and systematic studies of new mutations in yeast to characterize the raw material that gives rise to variation in gene expression segregating within and between species.

Education

1997-2002: Ph.D. in Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

1993-1997: B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology (with “Highest Honors” and distinction); B.S. Chemistry (with distinction), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Academic Appointments

2020 -present: Chair, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan
4/19 – 10/19: Visiting Group Leader, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg
2017 -present: Sally L. Allen Collegiate Professor, University of Michigan
2016 -present: Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, University of Michigan
2015 -present: Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
2015 – 2018: Professor of Honors Program, University of Michigan
2014 – 2019: Associate Chair of Graduate Studies, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan
2011 – 2015: Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Associate Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2005- present: Member, Program in the Biomedical Sciences; Member, Center for Computational Medicine and Biology; Member, Center for Statistical Genetics; Trainer, NIH Genome Sciences Training Grant; Trainer, NIH Genetics Training Grant; Trainer, NIH Organogenesis Training Grant; Trainer, NIH Open Data Training Grant
2005-2011: Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2002-2005: Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Honors and Awards

2019: Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award – Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
2019: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow
2019: Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution Margaret Dayhoff Mid-Career Award
2019: Elizabeth Caroline Crosby Award (University of Michigan)
2017: Sally L. Allen Collegiate Professorship (University of Michigan)
2016: Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship (University of Michigan)
2015: John Dewey Award (University of Michigan)
2014: Faculty Recognition Award (University of Michigan)
2014: Faculty Speaker, LSA Honors Program Graduation Ceremony (University of Michigan)
2013: Work/Life Champion Award for Supervisors (University of Michigan)
2013: Excellence in Education Award (University of Michigan)
2011: Class of 1923 Memorial Teaching Award (University of Michigan)
2010: Henry Russel Award (University of Michigan)
2008: “Scientist to Watch”, The Scientist
2008-2010: Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow
2007-2009: March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Award
2003-2006: Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow
2000: Best Poster award at the 9th Annual “Egg to Organ” Symposium
1998-2001: National Institutes of Health Genetics Training Grant
1998: Henry Vilas Fellowship
1998: National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship Honorable Mention
1997-1998: Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Fellowship
1993-1997: W.R. Hotchkiss Foundation Scholarship

Professional Service

Professional

2021 – present: External Advisory Committee, Mechanisms of Cellular Evolution (Arizona State University)
2019: Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Fitch Prize selection committee
2019: Society for the Study of Evolution, Dobzhansky Award selection committee
2018, 2019: Society for the Study of Evolution, Rosemary Grant Award selection committee
2018-2019: Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), Student Workshop committee, chair
2019-present: Senior Advisor, Graduate Training Program in Evolution of Gene Expression, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Institute for Molecular Biology, Mainz, Germany
2018: Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, External advisory committee for dispute resolution
2018: Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Faculty Awards, Judge
2017: Panelist, LIFT-TTA (Transition to Associate Professor), ADVANCE, University of Michigan
2017: Nominating Committee, Genetics Society of America (GSA)
2017-2019: Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), (elected), Councilor
2016: Panelist, “Gameful Learning” Workshop, CRLT, University of Michigan
2016: Moderator, Provost’s Seminar on Teaching, REBUILD, University of Michigan
2016: Panelist, LIFT-TTA (Transition to Associate Professor), ADVANCE, University of Michigan
2016: Judge for poster competition, Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution (~1000 attendees)
2016: Selection committee, James Crow award, The Allied Genetics Conference, Orlando, FL (July 2016)
2016: Panelist, New Faculty Workshop, The Allied Genetics Conference, Orlando, FL (July 2016)
2016: Invited speaker, Colloquium on Human Genetics Education, Duke University (April 2016)
2015: Panelist, Community Connection: Bridges to Science 2015, University of Michigan (July 2015)
2015: Leader, Evolution and Development Education Workshop, PanAmEvoDevo, Berkeley, (Aug 2015)
2015: Panelist, The Art of Leading a Research Group, University of Michigan (Dec 2015)
2015: Panelist, LSA Teaching Academy “Active Learning in Large Courses”, University of Michigan (Aug 2015)
2014-2017: Education officer, PanAmerican Society of Evolutionary Developmental Biology
2014: Founding Council Member, PanAmerican Society of Evolutionary Developmental Biology
2014: Faculty speaker, Honors Graduation Ceremony, University of Michigan (May 2014)
2014: Panelist, “Preparing Future Faculty” Seminar, University of Michigan (May 2014)
2014-2016: REBUILD: Researching Evidence Based Undergraduate Instructional and Learning Developments
2012-2015: Education Committee, member, Genetics Society of America (GSA)
2012: Panelist for Honors discussion on the nature of science (U. Michigan, organized by B. Coppola)
2012: External Advisory Committee for University of Texas Teaching Academy
2012: SMBE Satellite Symposium selection committee (chair Soojin Yi, Georgia Tech)
2012: “Integrating Piazza into course discussion” Provost symposium (organized by CRLT)
2012: “Using Clickers for Formative Assessment and Student Engagement” New Faculty Orientation
2012: Judge for poster competition, Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution (~1000 attendees)
2011: Panelist, “Preparing Future Faculty” Seminar, University of Michigan (May 2011)
2010: Panelist, “Mentoring and Graduate Teaching: Managing a Lab” at LSA Teaching Academy (Aug 2010)
2010: Panelist, “Preparing Future Faculty” Seminar, University of Michigan (May 2010)
2009: Scientific program committee, Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution annual meeting
2008: Judge for poster competition, Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution (~1000 attendees)
2008: Panelist, “Preparing Future Faculty” Seminar, University of Michigan (May 2008)
2007: Judge for poster competition, 48th Annual Drosophila Research Conference (~1500 attendees)
2007: Panelist, “Preparing Future Faculty” Seminar, University of Michigan (May 2007)
2007: Panelist, “Preparing Future Faculty” Seminar, University of Michigan (October 2007)

Editorial Roles

eLife, Senior Editor (2016-)
Genetics, Associate Editor (2018-)
Molecular Biology and Evolution, Associate Editor (2013-)
eLife, Board of Reviewing Editors (2016)
Trends in Genetics, Advisory Editorial Board (2015-)
Genome Biology and Evolution, Associate Editor (2012-2018)
Heredity, Editorial board member (2012-2015)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, guest editor (2011, 2012, 2013)
PLoS Genetics, guest associate editor (2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015)
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Editorial board member (2011-2012)
Evolution, Associate editor (2009-2012)

Reviewing activity: Grants

National Institutes of Health (Genetics, Variation, and Evolution Study Section, standing member 2021-)
National Institutes of Health (MIRA review panel, New investigator award) 2019, 2020
National Institutes of Health (Genomics, Computational Biology and Technology Study Section) 2017
National Institutes of Health (Genetics, Variation, and Evolution Study Section) – 2014, 2016, 2019
National Institutes of Health (Project Grant Special Panel) – 2014, 2016
National Science Foundation (Panelist: Molecular Evolution and Genomics)
National Science Foundation (Panelist: Population and Evolutionary Processes)
National Science Foundation (Panelist: Networks, Synthetic Biology, and Evolution)
National Science Foundation (ad hoc reviewer: Genes and Genome Systems, Eukaryotic Genetics, Population and Evolutionary Processes, Physiological and Structural Systems, Mechanisms of Inheritance, Mechanisms and Regulation of Transcription)
Human Frontier Science Program
Austrian Science Fund
Kansas State University Ecological Genomics Institute
University of Michigan, Office of the Vice President for Research
Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
Wellcome Trust, Sir Henry Dale Fellowship,
Foundation pour la Recherche Médicale

Reviewing activity: Academic Journals

BMC Evolutionary Biology
BMC Genomics
Cell
Current Biology
Development
Evolution and Development
FLY
Gene
Genetica
Genetics
Genome Biology
Genome Biology and Evolution
Genome Research
Heredity
Journal of Molecular Evolution
Molecular Biology and Evolution
Molecular Systems Biology
Nature
Nature Genetics
Nature Reviews Genetics
Philosophical Transactions B
Plant Cell
PLoS Biology
PLoS Genetics
PLoS ONE
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Science
Trends in Ecology and Evolution
Trends in Genetics

Reviewing activity: Books

2006: “Introduction to Genetic Analysis”, (9th edition), Griffiths et al. (WH Freeman Publishers)
2006: “Developmental Basis of Evolutionary Change”, D.L. Stern (Roberts and Company Publishers)
2000: “From DNA to Diversity: Molecular genetics and the evolution of animal design” (1st edition)
S.B. Carroll, J.K. Grenier, S.D. Weatherbee (Blackwell Science)
2000: “A primer of Genome Science” (1st edition), G. Gibson and S. Muse (Sinauer Publishing)

Past and Present Membership in Professional Societies

Genetics Society of America
PanAmerican Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Society of Developmental Biology
Society for the Study of Evolution
American Society of Naturalists

University Service

2021-2024: Rackham Graduate School Executive Board (elected)
2018-2019: LSA Dean Search Advisory Committee
2018: Precision Health Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC)
2017-2020: Biosciences Initiative Coordinating Committee (BICC), 13 member committee charged with using $150 million dollars and 30 faculty positions to enrich Biosciences across the University of Michigan
2017: Henry Russel Award Committee (Rackham)

College (LSA) Service

2016 – 2017: Associate Professor Rank Committee (LSA)

Research Interests

Our research investigates the genetic basis of phenotypic evolution. The evolution of development, especially mechanisms controlling gene regulation, are of particular interest. Molecular and developmental biology, population and quantitative genetics, genomics and bioinformatics are all integrated in this work.

Website: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/wittkopp-lab/

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Eleanor Maine

 

Professor, Department of Biology, Syracuse University

Candidacy Statement

I am honored to run for the Board of Directors of the Genetics Society of America. I have been a GSA member for over 40 years, and I value my membership because of the Society’s history of advocacy for science and efforts to diversify the scientific workforce. I first joined the GSA as a graduate student studying sex determination and dosage compensation in Drosophila, and my current research addresses genetic and epigenetic controls of germ line development using C. elegans as a model organism. I first became directly involved with GSA-sponsored mentorship activities when the C. elegans community began partnering with the GSA to organize the International C. elegans Meeting. At that time, I was asked to co-organize a mentoring event for new faculty. Although this was a new event for our conference, dozens of people showed up! Clearly, the GSA had identified an unmet need. If elected to the Board, I will bring my perspective as a seasoned principal investigator and professor with extensive service experience to help move forward the initiatives of the GSA around issues facing the scientific enterprise such as equity and inclusion in the workforce, engaging with the public to increase their understanding of and appreciation for scientific efforts, and advocacy for research funding.

Through my direct involvement with graduate students at Syracuse University, as well as with our Women in Science and Engineering group on campus, I have witnessed firsthand how professional development activities can increase equity and inclusion within the research community. If elected to the Board, I will commit to dedicating my energy toward finding new and innovative approaches to further diversity and inclusion within our society. In addition, the current pandemic has uncovered a need for our community to work toward increased scientific literacy in our country. Communication is key, as I have seen in my experiences with undergraduate and graduate students in the classroom and research lab, as well as with outreach activities involving elementary and high school students. I will work with GSA to expand our outreach initiatives. GSA members are an outstanding group of researchers and educators at the forefront of developing genetic technologies and teaching methods, and I am excited at our potential for working together to move forward our community’s priorities.

Education

1984: Ph.D., Biology, Princeton University
1978: B.A., Biology, Wesleyan University

Career Summary

2008-present: Professor, Department of Biology, Syracuse University
1996-2008: Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Syracuse University
1990-1996: Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Syracuse University
1986-1990: Research Associate, Program in Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1984-1986: Research Associate, Biology Department, Princeton University

Honors and Awards

2018: Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award, Syracuse University
2005: Faculty of 1000 recognition. Corresponding author on an article cited as one of “the most interesting” papers in biology. Maine EM, Hauth J, Ratliff T, Vought VE, She X, Kelly WG. EGO-1, a putative RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, is required for heterochromatin assembly on unpaired chromosomes during C. elegans meiosis. Current Biology 15:1972-1978.
2001: Invited speaker, Society for Developmental Biology national conference, Seattle
2000: Invited speaker, Cold Spring Harbor Banbury Workshop on RNA Silencing
2000: Science Editor’s Choice recognition. Corresponding author on featured article. Smardon A, Spoerke JM, Stacey SC, Klein ME, Mackin N, Maine EM. EGO-1 is related to RNA-direct RNA polymerase and functions in germline development and RNA interference in C. elegans. Current Biology 10:169-178.
1997: Invited speaker, Society for Developmental Biology Northeast Regional Meeting
1992-1993: Eta Pi Upsilon Women’s Honorary Society Award for Outstanding Woman Educator at Syracuse University
1987-1990: National Institutes of Health Individual National Research Service Award
1985: Society for Developmental Biology Young Investigator poster award

Professional Service

Grant review

2021: NIH fellowship application review panel (ZRG1 F08)
2016: NSF Advisory panel (IOS)
2015: NIH fellowship application EMNR IRG review panel
2014: NIH fellowship application EMNR IRG review panels (2)
2011: NIH R01 review special emphasis review panels (2)
2011: NIH R15 review panel
2009: NSF Advisory Panel (IBN)
2006-2008: NSF Advisory Panel (MCB)
2006: NIH grant review panel for RFA
2005: NIH /NIDDK grant review panels for RFA
2004: NIH /NIDDK grant review panels for RFA
1995-1998: NSF Advisory Panel (IBN)
1990-present: Ad hoc grant reviewer for NSF, Wellcome Trust, Austrian Science Foundation, Human Frontiers of Science, US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Dutch Research Council (NWO), Jeffress Memorial Trust

Academic Service

University

2018-present: Member & current Chair, Women in Science & Engineering Leadership Development team
2021: PEW Charitable Trust nomination committee
2020: PEW Charitable Trust nomination committee
2020: Reviewer, SOURCE funding for undergraduate researchers
2019: Honors Capstone Science Prize selection committee
2017-2019: Faculty Senate
2018 Reviewer, CUSE funding for faculty research
2017: Honors Capstone Science Prize selection committee
2002-2016: University Microbiology Safety Committee
2010: Special committee on the relationship between Arts & Sciences and Maxwell Colleges
2008-2009: Search Committee for Biomechanical and Chemical Engineering Department Chair
2008: Honors Capstone Science Prize selection committee
2006: Panelist, Office of Sponsored Programs grant writing panel
2006: Panel member, new faculty orientation
2003-2005: Faculty Senate

College

2018-2019: Chair, College of A & S Faculty Council
2017-2019: College of A & S Faculty Council
1991-2019: Health Professions Advisory Committee
2005-2006: Search Committee for Health Professions Advisory Program counselor
1999: Presentation, Arts and Science Board of Visitors Meeting
1996-1998: Academic Committee
1992-1994: Committee on Undergraduate Life
1992-1993: Committee on Conditions for Women
1990-present: Dissertation defense committee chair for Syracuse University PhD candidates in departments other than Biology
1991-present: Participant in panel discussions organized by the College for new faculty, prospective students, the Board of Visitors, the Office of Sponsored Programs, and the Women in Science and Engineering Program

Department

2017-present: Chair/co-Chair, Biology Graduate Education Committee
2017-present: Biology Chair’s Advisory Committee
2020: Committee to Evaluate Candidates for Department Chair
2019-2020: Chair, Biology Department Promotion & Tenure Committee
2018-2019: Biology Department Promotion Committee
2017-2018: Chair, Biology Department Promotion & Tenure Committee
2016-2017: Biology Department Promotion & Tenure Committee
2014-2015: Faculty Search Committee for Biology
2013-2014: Faculty Search Committee for Biochemistry
2012-2013: Co-Chair, Faculty Search Committee for Biochemistry
2011-2012: Chair, Faculty Search Committee for Biology
2011-2014: Biology Graduate Committee
2010-2011: Chair, Biology Department Promotion & Tenure Committee
2010-2011: Search Committee for Biology Department Chair (internal)
2009-2010: Biology Department Promotion & Tenure Committee
2009: Organizer/Facilitator, Department of Biology Faculty Retreat
2008-2009: Faculty Search Committee for Biology
2008: Chair, Departmental Visioning Committee
2007-2008: Faculty Search Committee for Biology
2005-2011: Biology Chair’s Advisory Committee
2004: Organizer/Facilitator, Department of Biology Faculty Retreat
2003-2004: Faculty Search Committee for Biology
2003-2004: Biology Department Promotion & Tenure Committee
2002-2003: Faculty Search Committee for Biology
2002: Organizer/Facilitator, Department of Biology Faculty Retreat
2001: Planning Committee for new Biology facilities
2000-2001: Faculty Search Committee for Biology
1999-2011: Biology Undergraduate Committee
1999-present: Departmental Mentoring Committees for untenured faculty (numerous)
1999-2000: Faculty Search Committee for Biology
1998-1999: Biology Department Promotion & Tenure Committee
1998: Departmental Visioning & Planning Committee
1998: Biology Chair’s Advisory Committee
1997-1998: Faculty Search Committee for Biology
1996-1997: Biology Department Promotion & Tenure Committee
1995-1999: Graduate Student Recruiting Committee
1995-1996: Faculty Search Committee for Biology
1995: Biology Chairperson Evaluation Committee
1993-1996: Advisor for Biology undergraduate club
1993-1995: Biology Undergraduate Committee
1992-1993: Faculty Search Committee for Biology
1991-1992: Faculty Search Committee for Biology
1991: Co-PI, NIH small equipment grant for Axiovert & microinjection set up (funded)
1990-1991: Faculty Search Committee for Biology

Conference work

2021: Co-Organizer, Upstate New York C. elegans Meeting
2018: Co-Organizer, Upstate New York C. elegans Meeting
2016: Co-Organizer, Upstate New York C. elegans Meeting
2008-2009: Scientific organizing Committee, 17th International C. elegans Meeting
2007: Mentoring organizer for 16th International C. elegans meeting
2005-2006: Scientific organizing Committee, C. elegans Development and Evolution Topic Meeting #1
2005: Mentoring organizer for 15th International C. elegans meetings
1999: Co-Organizer, Northeast Regional Society for Developmental Biology Conference
1992: Session Chair, Fourth Biennial East Coast C. elegans Meeting, Columbia U

Other service to the profession

2013: External dissertation examiner, Indian Institute of Technology
2010: External dissertation examiner, University of Calgary
2002: External dissertation examiner, University of Toronto
1993-present: Graduate committee member for PhD students at SUNY-Upstate Medical University
1990-present: Ad hoc reviewer for scientific journals and publishers, including Genetics, Development, PLoS Genetics, PLoS Biology, PLoS ONE, G3, Nature, Science, EMBO Journal, Nucleic Acids Research, PNAS, Genome Research, Molecular Biology of the Cell, RNA, genesis, Gene, Garland Science
1997-present: External referee for Tenure, Promotion, Review, &/or faculty hires, including at Boston U, Colgate U, College of Willian & Mary, Harvard Medical School, Macalester College, New College of Florida, NIH, Occidental College, Queens College, Rutgers, San Francisco State U, St Louis U, SUNY-Upstate Medical U, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Washington State U, U Alabama, U Calgary, U Missouri, Yale

Professional Societies

Genetics Society of America
Society for Developmental Biology

Research Interests

My research group focuses on the regulation of gene expression during germline development. The animal germ line undergoes a unique developmental program to produce healthy gametes. Gene expression is tightly controlled to ensure these events proceed correctly and to provide inherited gene products to direct development of the early embryo. Our entrée into C. elegans germ line development was to identify factors critical for maintaining a robust stem cell population. Some of the factors we identified function in gene regulatory mechanisms at work not only in stem cells but throughout germline development. Our work has uncovered interrelated mechanisms involving small RNA biogenesis, RNA stability, and translational control as well as RNA-based mechanisms that impact meiotic chromatin structure. Our findings have contributed to an understanding in our field of the importance of post-transcriptional regulation, and they are relevant for understanding RNA-based regulatory mechanisms in all organisms.

Website: https://thecollege.syr.edu/people/faculty/maine-eleanor/

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Martha Soto

 

Associate Professor, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers

Candidacy Statement

I would like to join the GSA Board for two reasons: 1) To give back to an organization that has supported my career, and 2) To continue my efforts to recruit and retain people from all communities into science careers.

(1) First, I want to give back to GSA. I have been a GSA member since my first year of graduate school, when I attended the Drosophila meeting to present my four-panel poster based on my rotation in Welcome Bender’s lab. I was amazed by how many people stopped by. I made life-long friendships and professional connections at that first GSA meeting. My Ph.D. career highlight was presenting at the Fly Meeting, on the genetics of the Polycomb Group, with Ed and Pam Lewis, the discoverers of the PcG, in the audience. I switched to C. elegans for my postdoctoral work with Craig Mello. This was a return to worms, since Phil Meneely and Barbara Meyer trained me as an undergraduate, where my screens identified new sex determination genes. My work in the Mello lab on the Gex mutants, which turned out to be regulators of branched actin, led to the work I still pursue as a faculty member at Rutgers, on the genetics and cell biology of morphogenesis in embryos. My lab members love to attend and present at GSA meetings. With the help of incredible GSA staff, I have co-organized GSA meetings, including the C. elegans Development Meeting in 2012 and, the C. elegans component of TAGC 2020.

(2) Second, I want to share my experiences recruiting and retaining young scientists, including those from communities underrepresented in academia. I am a Latina, from a low-income home, who was able to attend premier schools and be trained by superstar geneticists. I know not everyone has these opportunities. Therefore, before graduate school, I taught science in a public high school, bringing hands-on experiments to my immigrant students, and volunteered at that school throughout my Ph.D. Before my postdoc, I was an ASM/AAAS Congressional Fellow and worked with a Member of Congress to write a bill to protect the privacy of genetic and medical information. As a faculty member at Rutgers, I founded BIO Links, a K-12 outreach program that has sent graduate students into local public schools since 2007. Former BIO Links Volunteers teach science at schools, universities, and museums. I directed Postdoctoral Career Development at RWJMS-Rutgers, 2010-2017, then helped launch a campus-wide office for postdocs. In 2010 I helped create INSPIRE at Rutgers, an NIH-funded IRACDA Training Grant which works with postdocs who want to be faculty members, and with three partner minority serving institutions in New Jersey and NY. Our diverse Fellows teach at the partner schools, and mentor the students to encourage participation in undergraduate research, and graduate school. 70% of our Fellows obtain faculty jobs. In my lab I have mentored nine postdocs, five belonging to underrepresented groups, four now in in tenure-track faculty jobs. I would love to continue these efforts with the GSA Board.

Education

B.S., Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1988
Ph.D., Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 1995

Professional Experience

1988-1989 Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, Cambridge Public Schools,
Science teacher in the Transitional Bilingual Program.
1989-1995 Graduate Student, laboratory of Professor Welcome Bender,
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
1995-1996 Congressional Science Fellow, American Society for Microbiology
Assignment: Office of Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) to draft a bill to protect genetic privacy.
1997-2002 Postdoctoral Fellow, laboratory of Dr. Craig Mello
University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester, MA
2003-2011 Assistant Professor, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School- UMDNJ, Piscataway, NJ
2011-present Associate Professor, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School- UMDNJ, now Rutgers, Piscataway, NJ, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

Honors and Awards

National Merit Scholar, 1984
Burchard Fellow, MIT, 1987-1988
NIH Predoctoral Training Grant in Genetics, NIH, 1989-1991
NIH Postdoctoral Training Grant: Cell and Developmental Biology, NIH, 1997-1998
Postdoctoral Fellowship, American Cancer Society, 1998-2001
Co-founder and coordinator, Post Doc Data Club, U. Massachusetts Program in Molecular Medicine, 1998-2002
Keystone Symposium Scholarship, Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology, 2000
Outstanding Postdoc Advocate, Rutgers-RWJMS Postdoctoral Association, Piscataway, NJ, 2014
OASIS Leadership Award from the RWJMS Dean’s Office, Rutgers University, 2016
Inaugural recipient of the Martha Soto Leadership Award, for efforts on behalf of postdoctoral researchers at Rutgers, Rutgers Postdoctoral Association (Rutgers PDA), 2017
Dean’s Award for Outstanding Service for Outstanding contributions to the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 2017
2018 Keynote Speaker, 63rd Annual Meeting, New Jersey Academy of Science, Kean U.
Invited Speaker, U. Minnesota Developmental Biology Center Symposium, 2021, now postponed to Oct. 2022.

Professional Service

International

2012: Main Meeting Organizer (with Drs. Jeremy Nance and Jane Hubbard), C. elegans International Development, Cell Biology and Gene Expression Meeting, Madison, WI.
2018-2020: Main Organizer (with Dr. Mike Boxem, U. Utrecht) for C. elegans Community, TAGC 2020: The Allied Genetics Conference, Genetics Society of America, Washington, D.C.

National

Panel Chair, East Coast C. elegans Meeting, Yale University2004
Organizing Committee, C. elegans Meeting on Development and Evolution in Madison, WI, 2008

Grant Review Panels

2007-present Ad Hoc Grants Reviewer for: NSF, NIH, March of Dimes, ACS, NSERC
2008 Panelist, Arlington, VA, NSF Review Panel on Neuronal Development
2012 Panelist, Atlanta, GA, ACS Review Committee on Development, Differentiation and Cancer
2013 Panelist, Seattle, WA, NIH Intercellular Interactions Study Section
2014-2020 Permanent Member, NIH Intercellular Interactions Study Section
2021 Panelist, Alternate Chair, NIH Fellowship Review Panel, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, and Bioengineering

AdHoc Reviewer

2008- present Reviewer for Dev. Cell, MBoC, Development, Developmental Biology, Developmental Dynamics, PLOS Genetics, PLOS One, Genetics, PNAS, Nature, Bioessays, BMC Neurosicence, Frontiers Journals

Medical School/University
Rutgers – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

RWJMS Faculty Liaison, Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, 03/10 to Present
Research Day Planning Committee, 2003-2004
Chair, RWJMS Graduate Initiatives Committee, 2005-2007
Elected Junior Faculty Member of the RWJMS Executive Council, 09/08-08/12
Admissions Committee, INSPIRE Postdoctoral Program, 2010 to Present
Admissions Committee, INSPIRE RiSE Undergraduate Program, 2015 to Present
Awards and Prizes Committee of RWJMS, 2010 to Present
Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board, RWJMS, with Dean Whitley-Williams, 2019-Present

Rutgers University

Mentoring Executive Committee (MEC) for the Rutgers Connection Network (RCN) Faculty Mentoring Program, 2016 to 2018
Elected At-Large Member, Rutgers Faculty Senate, Senate Budget and Finance Committee, 2016-2019

Department

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Shimamura Memorial Award Committee, 2010
Compensation Committee, 2016 to Present

Service, Rutgers Graduate Programs

Molecular Biosciences and GSBS Committees:
2004-2009: Molecular Biosciences Recruitment Committee
2005-2007: Chair, Graduate Initiatives Committee, Convened by Dean Kathy Scotto
2010-2011: Qualifying Exam Committee for Molecular Biosciences Graduate Program
2007 to Present: Founder and Faculty Advisor, BIO Links (Biosciences Links to Teaching) Program. This program allows RWJMS and Rutgers graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to be partnered with middle school and high school science teachers at local public schools for a nine (9) week commitment to share their research experiences, explain how they became scientists and help the science teacher with on-going science activities. Program web page: https://grad.rutgers.edu/academics/graduate-programs/bio-links

Service to the Rutgers Postdoc Community

2010 to 2017: Director, Postdoctoral Career Development Program.
This program provided career development activities for the postdoctoral fellows and senior graduate students of RWJMS and Rutgers University. In Feb. 2017, the program closed as Dr. Soto helped Rutgers establish a staffed Rutgers Office for Postdoctoral Affairs: https://postdocs.rutgers.edu/

2010 to Present: Co-Director, INSPIRE at RWJMS
This program sends talented postdoctoral fellows from RWJMS and Rutgers University to work with faculty at three Minority Serving Institutions, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ, and Medgar Evers College –CUNY, Brooklyn, NY. One of the goals of the INSPIRE Program is to increase interest in scientific research and retention of science majors at these institutions.
Program web page: https://rwjms.rutgers.edu/research/inspire/home/a>

Research Interests

Proper control of cell polarity is essential for all cells. Healthy mammalian epithelial cells maintain apical basal polarity, while cancerous epithelial cells exhibit defects in the orientation of their division axis, and loss of polarity. Our studies using the nematode C. elegans combine genetic, molecular, biochemical and live imaging approaches to investigate how specific proteins are used to regulate polarized movements at key points in development. We used genetics to uncover a pathway that links signals at the plasma membrane to the recruitment of the WAVE complex, a powerful regulator of Arp2/3, the only known nucleator of polarized branched F-actin. Our studies have shown that the force of polarized branched actin can move vesicles, can position the nucleus, and generates the membrane protrusions that permit cell and tissue migrations. Current projects include mechanistic studies to understand how branched F-actin helps to initiate and maintain cell polarity during cell migrations and cell homeostasis, and how polarity signals between tissues are used to polarize the cytoskeleton. We have also discovered and are investigating novel regulators of morphogenesis. This work has implications for human health, from different cancers, in which the regulators of branched actin are often mutated, to neuronal development, where mutations in branched actin regulators are associated with autism and schizophrenia.

Website: https://molbiosci.rutgers.edu/faculty-research/faculty/faculty-detail/88-s-t/194-martha-c-soto

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David Beier

 

Director, Center for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Seattle Children’s Hospital; Professor, Dept. of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine

Candidacy Statement

My research career has been dedicated to using genetics to understand mammalian development and human congenital disorders. Importantly, I have a broad view of the utility of genetics by virtue of my own highly varied research, which has involved studies of yeast, mice, zebrafish, Acomys, and human diseases and populations. I have been productive, publishing over 150 papers in this domain. I have been an early adopter of genomic technologies for genetic investigation, as I am very much attuned to Sydney Brenner’s observation that “Progress in science depends on new techniques, new discoveries and new ideas, probably in that order.” That said, I am appreciative of the extraordinary advances in genetics that have been made by careful observation (for example, of tortoiseshell cats and Tabby mice, maize kernel coloration, and mutagenized yeast) followed by brilliant inferences (by, respectively, Mary Lyon, Barbara McClintock, and Lee Hartwell and their colleagues). My perspective has been further strengthened by my extensive review experience on NIH and other funding agency study sections, and as an editor at PLoS Genetics and Mammalian Genome. I believe this broad view will enable me to be a thoughtful and productive member of the GSA leadership.

I am presently the Director of a Pediatric hospital-affiliated basic research Center, where my focus has been recruiting energetic and creative scientists and supporting their efforts; this has been very successful and our Center is thriving. During my career I have had abundant service experience in multiple roles. I have served on the Secretariat of the International Mammalian Genome Society (IMGS) and as its President. During my tenure the annual IMGS meeting evolved to focus on support of young investigators, who are often not well-served by large anonymous conferences. I am presently the PI on the NIH grant that supports this meeting, and these funds are now exclusively used for the support of trainees from historically underrepresented groups. I have also served in a variety of roles in the American Society of Human Genetics and the GSA, including as a member of program committees, abstract reviewer, meeting session moderator, and reviewer for the DeLill-Nasser award. I have served on a variety of Scientific Advisory Boards for NIH-funded programs and continue to do so.

During my career, I have had the great pleasure of interacting with many smart and engaged investigators as mentors, colleagues, and trainees. I have particularly relished the opportunity to guide the development and growth of research enterprises (my previous Division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and my present Center and Research Institute) and I can say that this has been as fulfilling to me as my own experiments. I am acutely aware of the challenges that new investigators face – for example, a lack of hard salary support, fewer opportunities for meeting participation and networking (due to funding and more recently the pandemic), inadequate support for families, and unlimited demands by reviewers and editors for expensive and time-intensive additional experiments, to name a few. I am gratified that our junior colleagues are prepared to pursue a career in genetics in the face of many disincentives, and I believe it is the responsibility of the GSA to advocate on their behalf and challenge the obstacles to their achievement. It speaks to the intellectual vigor of our discipline that so many bright young scholars are eager to participate and contribute, and we must leverage our own experience to help them succeed.

I believe my focus on scientific excellence, my vision, and my insight into the fundamentals that are important for a successful research career will enable me to provide valuable guidance as a Director of the GSA.

Education

1977: B.A., Biochemistry Dept., Harvard University, Cambridge MA

1984: M.D., University of Washington Medical School, Seattle WA

1985: Ph.D., Biochemistry Dept., University of Washington Medical School, Seattle WA

Career Summary

1977–1985: Medical Scientist Training Program, Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Laboratory of Dr. Ted Young
1984-1985: Intern in Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle Children’s Hospital
1985–1990: Post-doctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School, Laboratory of Dr. Philip Leder
1988-1990: Clinical Fellow in Medical Genetics, Massachusetts General Hospital & Boston Children’s Hospital
1992 – Present: Fellow, American College of Medical Genetics
1992–1997: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
1997–2005: Associate Professor, Dept. of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
2005–2012: Professor, Dept. of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
2006- 2012: Associate Member, Broad Institute, Harvard University/MIT.
2007- 2009: Acting Chief, Genetics Division, Medicine Department, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
2009- 2012: Associate Chief, Genetics Division, Medicine Department, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
2012–present: Professor, Dept. of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine
2012–present: Director, Center for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Seattle Children’s Hospital

Service Roles (selected)

1997-2004: Chairman, Model Organisms Committee, Human Genome Organization (HUGO)
2003 – 2005: Mouse Genome Database Advisory Board, The Jackson Laboratory
2004 – 2006: Program Committee Member, American Society of Human Genetics
2006-2011: Member (Scientific Advisory Board), NIH Knock-out Mouse Project (KOMP)
2009: Organizer/Speaker, Functional Annotation of the Genome Meeting, Banff, CN
2009-12: Dept. of Medicine Promotions Committee, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
2009-2011: Elected Member of Secretariat, International Mammalian Genome Society
2010: Organizer/Speaker, Resources and Methods for Analysis of Gene Function in Mouse Models. 60th Annual ASHG Meeting, Washington DC
2011-2012: President-elect, International Mammalian Genome Society
2013-2014: President, International Mammalian Genome Society
2013: MSTP Admissions Committee, University of Washington Medical School
2013: Dept. of Pediatrics Promotions Committee, University of Washington Medical School
2015-2016: Past-President, International Mammalian Genome Society
2017: Brotman Baty Institute Management Committee, University of Washington Medical School
2021: Invited member, Consortium Monitoring Board for the NIH PKD Research Resource Consortium
2021: Invited member, External Advisory Board for the Jackson Laboratory Center for Precision Genetics
2021: Invited member, Board of Scientific Counselors, NICHD

Review activities (selected)

1996,1998,1999: Ad Hoc Reviewer, General Medicine B and Genome study sections
2003: Reviewer, Review of Toronto Centre for Modeling Human Disease
2003: Reviewer, Review of MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit, Harwell, UK
2004: Ad Hoc Reviewer, Genome study section, NIH
2005-2009: Regular member, Genes, Health, Disease study section, NIH
2006: Reviewer, NIH Knock-out Mouse Project (KOMP)
2007: Reviewer, Genome Canada Technology Development
2011-2016: Reviewer, March of Dimes
2013-2014: Reviewer, Genome British Columbia
2014-2017: Reviewer, Genetics Society of America DeLill-Nasser Award
2015: Reviewer, Cardiovascular Development Consortium
2017: Ad Hoc Reviewer, Genes, Health, Disease study section, NIH
2017: Reviewer, Genome BC Sector Innovation Program
2018: Reviewer, Member Conflict: Topics in Nephrology
2020: Reviewer, ZRG1 IMST-U (50): PAR- 20-085: Pilot Centers for Precision Disease Modeling (U54)
2020: Reviewer, NICHD Resource Program Grants in Bioinformatics (P41)
2021: Reviewer, NHGRI RFA-HG-20-043, Systematic Characterization of Genomic Variation on Genome Function and Phenotype

Awards

1973: Mountain Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Institute, Scholarship*
*This was my first competitive science award, when I was a HS senior. Isabel Mountain was an accomplished virologist; the award was in honor of her husband. Dr. Mountain was also the daughter of Thomas Hunt Morgan. Karma.
1974-1976: Harvard University, Harvard Scholarship
1975: Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh Medical School, Mellon Fellowship
1976: Harvard University, Dreyfus Fellowship
1977-1984: Biochemistry Department, University of Washington, NIH Medical Scientist Training Fellowship
1983: Biochemistry Department, University of Washington, Graduate School Dissertation Award
1986-1987: Genetics Department, Harvard Medical School, Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Fund Clinical Scientist Fellowship
1993-1996: Harvard Medical School, Life and Health Insurance Medical Research Fund Fellowship
2017: PKD Foundation, Lilian Jean Kaplan PKD Prize

Research Interests

My research has consistently focused on the use of genetic analysis for the identification of genes contributing to disease and developmental abnormalities. I have used a wide variety of approaches to this end and have been personally responsible for developing innovative strategies for genetic mapping and disease gene discovery. I have been primarily responsible for the positional cloning of over 30 mutations, many encoding previously uncharacterized genes. Furthermore, my research has anticipated many of the major trends in genetic analysis well before they became popular, including the importance of gene mapping and genomic analysis, the characterization of modifying genes and QTLs, and the application of ENU mutagenesis for developmental investigation and for sequence-based analysis, as well as the utilization of SNP genotyping and next-gen sequencing for genetic mapping in the mouse and zebrafish.

My interests in developmental biology and genetic analysis converged in a productive ENU mutagenesis screen in which we studied abnormalities of late embryonic development and organogenesis. Several of the numerous mutant phenotypes we have discovered are models of congenital syndromes, and their characterization has potential implications for understanding human disease. For example, we identified a mutation in Fog2 (Zfpm2) as the first monogenic cause for congenital diaphragmatic hernia. This approach has led to advances in fundamental knowledge as well; for example, we discovered that the gene Ttc21b is required for ciliary intraflagellar transport and mediates normal Sonic hedgehog pathway signaling. We have recently completed our eighth mutagenesis screen, with a focus on identifying genetic modifiers of mutations that affect organogenesis and renal biology.

Most recently I collaborated with Dr. Shamil Sunyaev to utilize large-scale exome sequence data to identify genes likely to be haploinsufficient in humans and thus of developmental consequence. Remarkably, most of the genes with the highest heterozygote selection metrics have not yet been associated with human disease or often even functionally annotated. We have begun to explore this cohort using analysis of the orthologous mouse mutants, taking advantage of the robust “knock-out” resources supported by the NIH and EUCOMM.

With the combined power of genetics and genomics, this is an exciting time to explore the basis for developmental processes and human disease.

Website: https://www.seattlechildrens.org/research/centers-programs/developmental-biology-regenerative-medicine/labs/beier-lab/

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Duojia (DJ) Pan

 

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bashour Distinguished Professor and Chairman, Department of Physiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Candidacy Statement

I am honored to be considered for a position on the GSA board of Directors. Genetics has been a driving force and unifying theme throughout my research career. As a graduate student in the laboratory of Albert Courey at UCLA, I studied transcriptional regulation in early Drosophila embryos. While my PhD thesis mostly involved biochemical and molecular approaches, it was built on the elegant genetic framework laid out by the luminaries of developmental genetics such as Eric Wieschaus, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, and Kathryn Anderson. My fascination with fly genetics led to a postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Gerald Rubin at UC Berkeley, where I conducted forward genetic screens for developmental patterning genes using mosaic flies. As a principal investigator at UT Southwestern Medical Center (1998-2004 and 2016-present) and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (2004-2016), I continued to leverage the power of forward genetics to elucidate signaling pathways controlling tissue growth. I became an HHMI investigator in 2008 and have served as Chair of Physiology Department at UT Southwestern Medical Center since 2016.

Genetics epitomizes an endless frontier. Powered by recent technological advances in DNA sequencing, single cell analyses, gene editing and the development of non-model organisms, we are entering a new “golden era” in which genetics will have a far deeper impact on our society than ever before, from medicine to ecology to climate change. In this context, I view genetics as an increasingly collaborative and interdisciplinary field that draws on the strengths of diverse talents, perspectives and backgrounds. The full potential of genetics will be realized only when we embrace the challenges and opportunities brought about by this changing landscape. As a potential member on the Board of Directors, I am excited to contribute my scientific and leadership experiences to GSA’s mission in fostering interdisciplinary interactions, empowering young geneticists, building a more inclusive research community, and advocating the importance of genetic research to the greater scientific community and society at large. Thanks for your consideration.

Education

1984-1988: B.S. Honors Biochemistry, Peking University
1988-1989: China-United States Biochemistry Examination and Application (CUSBEA)
1989-1993: Ph.D., Biological Chemistry, UCLA School of Medicine (advisor: Albert Courey)
1993-1998: Postdoctoral Fellowship, UC Berkeley (advisor: Gerald Rubin)

Professional Experience

1998-2004: Assistant Professor of Physiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center
2004-2004: Associate Professor of Physiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center
2004-2009: Associate Professor of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
2008-present: Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
2009-2016: Professor of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
2016-present: Professor and Chairman, Department of Physiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center

Professional Memberships

Genetics Society of America
American Cancer Society
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Honors and Awards

1988-1989: China-United States Biochemistry Examination and Application (CUSBEA) Scholarship
1993-1996: Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research
1998-2004: Virginia Murchison Linthicum Scholar in Medical Science, UT Southwestern
2001-2005: American Heart Association National Scientist Development Award
2003-2006: American Cancer Society Research Scholar
2006-2008: Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar
2012: Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
2013: Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research
2016-present: The Fouad A. and Val Imm Bashour Distinguished Chair in Physiology

Advisory and Editorial Boards

2004-2010: Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance, International Scientific Advisory Board
2006-2016: “Faculty of 1000” member
2010-2016: Advisory Committee, Baltimore Polycystic Kidney Research Center
2010-present: Advisory Committee, Harvard Hamartoma Research Center
2012-2014: Elections committee, Fly Board
2012-present: eLife, Board of Reviewing Editors
2015-2019: Standing Member, American Cancer Society Council for Extramural Grants
2016: co-organizer, Keystone symposium “Molecular and Cellular Basis of Growth and Regeneration”
2016-2019: Scientific Advisory Board, Peloton Therapeutics, Inc.
2016-present: Endowed Scholar Selection Committee, UT Southwestern Medical Center
2018: Organizer, the 9th Xiamen Winter Symposium on the Hippo Signaling in Development & Disease
2019-present: Board of Scientific Advisors, Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research

Research Interests

I have a long-standing interest in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying growth control and tissue homeostasis. My laboratory tackles this question using a combination of Drosophila and mouse genetics, biochemistry, cell and chemical biology approaches. Early work from my laboratory elucidated the molecular function of the Tsc1 and Tsc2 tumor suppressor proteins, linking Tsc1/Tsc2 to Rheb and TOR signaling. This work contributed to the eventual approval of mTOR inhibitors for the treatment of Tuberous Sclerosis syndrome. Much of our more recent work has focused on the Hippo pathway, which controls organ size in all animals. Using Drosophila as a genetic model, we have systematically decoded, in a stepwise manner, many of the key molecular components of the Hippo pathway. We further established a conserved role for Hippo signaling in mammalian tissue growth, regeneration and tumorigenesis. Besides our efforts on the Hippo pathway, we are continuing forward genetic screens in Drosophila to discover novel growth regulators and interrogating their physiological function in mammals.

Website: https://profiles.utsouthwestern.edu/profile/37929/duojia-pan.html

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