Becoming a world leader in genomic research

Health and AthleticsEducation and Academia
Written By Stuart McNish

Guest: Claire Fraser (Director, Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland)

The mapping of the human genome was a fearless plunge into groundbreaking science. Dr Fraser says, as a scientist, she had to take risks that allowed her to answer the questions she was asking in molecular biology – at the time a nascent field. She dared to fail at a time when that was still an option.

Her PhD and her early work at NIH was focused on G-protein coupled receptors and that led to exploring the receptors at a fundamental molecular level. She asked: how do you discover new members of this protein family? And that question led her to an intersection of disciplines, such as automated DNA sequencing which ultimately put her in line to map the human genome.

In this episode of Careers That Matter, Dr Claire Fraser walks us through her remarkable career.

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