Susan Lindquist receives Genetics Society of America Medal

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist will receive the 2008 Genetics Society of America (GSA) Medal, which is given for outstanding contributions in the field of genetics during the past 15 years. Lindquist will be presented with the medal later this year at a GSA-sponsored model organism meeting.

“Susan is widely recognized for her work in protein folding and the consequences of misfolding, which has important implications for understanding some neurodegenerative diseases and cancers,” said Trudi Schupbach, Ph.D., president of the Genetics Society of America, professor of molecular biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Princeton University. “Her work has provided evidence for a new paradigm in genetics based upon the inheritance of proteins with new, self-perpetuating shapes rather than new DNA sequences.”

Lindquist, also a professor of biology at MIT, served as secretary of the GSA Board from 1998-2000. She was director of the Whitehead Institute from 2001-2004 and has received numerous awards and honors, including election to National Academy of Sciences in 1997 and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2006.

Whitehead Members who have served on the GSA Board include Terry Orr-Weaver and Gerald Fink. Orr-Weaver, who currently serves as senior trustee on the GSA Board, served as president of the society in 2005 and vice president in 2004. Fink served as president of the society in 1988, vice-president in 1987 and secretary from 1977 to 1979. He was also the recipient of the Genetics Society of America Medal in 1982 and in 2001 he received the George W. Beadle Award, presented by the GSA for outstanding contributions to the community of genetic researchers. Both Orr-Weaver and Fink are also professors of biology at MIT.

Founded in 1931, the Genetics Society of America is a membership society representing nearly 5,000 scientists and educators in the field of genetics. The society promotes communication of advances in genetics through its journal GENETICS and by sponsoring scientific meetings on organisms widely used in genetic research.

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