Emily Dutrow

Graduate student

Emily is interested in the genetics of species differences. After studying biology at Haverford College with a focus on molecular biology and evolution, Emily joined the lab of Dr. Gustavo Aguirre at the University of Pennsylvania where she studied canine genetic diversity and the molecular pathogenesis of inherited retinal diseases. As a graduate student in the Noonan lab, Emily’s research focuses on the genetics of human biological uniqueness. She developed “humanized” mouse models using CRISPR-mediated interspecies sequence conversion to study regulatory elements that have gained a function on the human lineage. Using humanized mouse models, Emily is connecting human-specific sequence composition to uniquely human aspects of embryonic development.

Emily defended her thesis in 2019 and is now a postdoc in Elaine Ostrander’s lab at NIH.