Finding Ciliopathy Genes: From Comparative Genomics to Gene Identification

Dr. Susan Dutcher

Washington University in St. Louis

Dr. Susan Dutcher is the Interim Director of the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University. She is a prominent geneticist and Professor of Genetics at Washington University. She started her career in science studying yeast cell cycle mutants with Dr. Leland Hartwell and realized how model organisms could be used to understand human biology. With her use of comparative genomics to find human disease genes that affect cilia, her interests moved to understanding the cell biology behind many human ciliopathies using genomics, genetics and imaging.

During her academic career, she has served in many leadership positions. She served as Graduate Director of the Molecular Biology Program at the University of Colorado with 20 faculty and as Graduate Director of Genetics at Washington University with over 90 faculty. In 2006, with the departure of Dr. Mark Johnston as Interim Chair of Genetics at Washington University, she became Interim Chair for 3.5 years. During this time of transition, she successfully retained faculty and guided the junior faculty into productive careers. While chair, she served on the strategic planning committee for Washington University School of Medicine as the chairs at the School of Medicine and the Dean formulated a ten-year plan. During the planning, she chaired a subcommittee on Informatics.

Since stepping down as Interim Chair, she served as Co-Chair of a committee to write guidelines setting up one of the first Institutional Conflict of Interest Committees in the country and served as Vice-Chair and Chair of this committee for four years. She currently serves on the Promotion and Tenure committee for the School of Engineering. She also serves as Co-Chair of a committee to nominate and mentor junior faculty members for foundation grants that include the Pew, Searle, Mallinckrodt, Packard, Beckman, and Rita Allen Awards. This committee has been very successful in helping young faculty win these awards. She has served on the scientific advisory board for the Children’s Discovery Institute of St. Louis Children’s Hospital, a foundation set up to fund Washington University faculty to begin new and novel projects that impact the health of children.