Hunting Disease-Causing Genetic Variants

Dr. Miriam Meisler. Credit: University of Michigan Medical School. “In my lab, we’ve been gene hunters—starting with visible phenotypes, or characteristics, and searching for the responsible genes,” says Miriam Meisler, Ph.D., the Myron Levine Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. During her career, Dr. Meisler has identified the functions of multiple genes and has shown how genetic variants, or mutations, can impact human health. Becoming a Scientist Dr. Meisler had a strong interest in science as a child, which she credits to “growing up at the time of Sputnik” and receiving encouragement from her father and excellent science teachers in high school and college. However, when she started her undergraduate studies at Antioch College in Yellow Spring, Ohio, she decided to explore the humanities and social sciences. After 2 years of sociology and anthropology classes, she returned to biomedical science and, at a student swap, symbolically traded her dictionary for a slide rule—a mechanical device used to do calculations that was eventually replaced by the electric calculator. Dr. Meisler as a graduate student. Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Miriam Meisler. Dr. Meisler completed her undergraduate work at Queens College in New York City, where a lecturer inspired her to focus on the rapidly developing fields of cell biology and genetics. She earned her Ph.D. from Ohio State University in Columbus stu...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Being a Scientist Genes Injury and Illness Diseases DNA Profiles Research Organisms Scientific Process Source Type: blogs