Ó³»­´«Ã½

Kerstin Lindblad-Toh

Kerstin Lindblad-Toh has been awarded a 2007 European Young Investigator (EURYI) award for her work on disease gene mapping and functional genomics in the domestic dog. Lindblad-Toh, co-director of the Ó³»­´«Ã½â€™s Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program and guest professor at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology at Uppsala University in Sweden, was one of 20 EURYI award recipients this year.

The EURYI award was created in 2003 by the European Science Foundation and the European Heads of Research Council to attract outstanding scientists from all research disciplines to Europe and help build the next generation of leading researchers on that continent. The award will help support Lindblad-Toh’s research program at Uppsala University, which focuses on the characterization of disease phenotypes in dogs, the generation of tools for disease gene mapping, the identification and functional characterization of canine disease genes, and the application of this knowledge to human disease.

At the Ó³»­´«Ã½, Lindblad-Toh leads the Mammalian Genome Initiative, an NIH-funded project to decode the genomes of more than 20 additional mammalian species in an effort to highlight the key functional elements of the human genome. In addition, she oversees the genome sequencing and analysis of various mammals, including the mouse, dog, chimp, horse, and opossum. Lindblad-Toh also leads the Institute’s dog disease gene-mapping group, which has developed a DNA chip that is now being used to identify several canine disease genes.