Susan Dutcher, Ph.D., professor of genetics and of cell biology and physiology, has been named interim head of the James S. McDonnell Department of Genetics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis effective July 1.
Dutcher succeeds Mark Johnston, Ph.D., professor of genetics, who steps down after four years as interim chair. The appointment was announced by Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of the School of Medicine.
“Susan Dutcher is a highly respected geneticist, and we are delighted to tap her skills in assuming this role,” Shapiro says. “I’d also like to recognize Mark Johnston, who did an outstanding job as interim chair, and welcome him back to full-time bench science.”
Dutcher’s goals as interim head will include facilitating opportunities for scientific collaborations within the department and with other departments at the University.
“Genetics is increasingly becoming a universal tool for biomedical research, so I think it’s important that we as geneticists work to make the new approaches we’re developing available to the whole university,” she says.
Washington University’s BioMed 21 initiative, dedicated to transforming biomedical research from bench to bedside, has genetic research as one of its central cores. To speed the development of new clinical treatments from basic research, the initiative is dedicated to encouraging collaborations among researchers with many different specialties.
Dutcher’s laboratory uses the green alga Chlamydomonas to learn how information in genes is used to construct cilia, hairlike structures on the surface of the alga’s cells.
“Almost every cell in the human body has cilia,” Dutcher says. “Cilia that are active early in development ensure that organs like the heart and stomach end up where they’re supposed to be. Cilia clear away dirt and bacteria in the respiratory tract, help sperm swim and help keep fluid flowing into and out of the brain.”
Problems in the cilia and basal bodies, the structures that anchor cilia to the surfaces of cells, are linked to a variety of disorders, including polycystic kidney disease and genetic disorders that affect the ear, nose, sperm, placement of internal organs, number of fingers and toes, and length of the limb bones.
Three years ago, Dutcher conducted a pioneering experiment that used a computerized comparison of three genomes to single out genes likely to contribute to the creation of cilia in Chlamydomonas. Her lab’s research still includes studies of interesting genes highlighted by the analysis.
Dutcher obtained her Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Washington at Seattle in 1980. Her advisor was Leland Hartwell, who won the Nobel Prize in 2001. Prior to coming to Washington University in 1999, she was a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Before that she was on the faculty at Rockefeller University.
She has won the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Award to Women Scientists and Engineers, and was a Searle Scholar.
Dutcher currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the Genetics Society of America and was director of the 2006 International Conference on Cell and Molecular Biology of Chlamydomonas. She is a member of the Siteman Cancer Center.
Washington University School of Medicine’s full-time and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.