Sun, Sep 5 , 2010

Education:

B.A. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Rice University (1999)

B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts), Rice University (2000)

Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Boston University (2008)




Elinor Karlsson is the Sabeti's lab first post-doc and visual artist in residence. Half Swedish and half new zealand-ish, she hails originally from Rhode Island and has undergraduate degrees in both biochemistry and fine arts from Rice University in Houston, Texas. She recently completed her doctoral research into the genetic causes of diseases in purebred dogs (a collaborative project the Bioinformatics program at Boston University between the Broad Institute).

Elinor found genes for coat color, ridgeback, hairlessness and cancer - and acquired an absurd amount of trivia related to the 400 different breeds of dog, from the Australian Cattle Dog to the Yugoslavian Mountain Hound. In the Sabeti lab, Elinor now turns her attention to humans, working with Shari Grossman to find genes related to disease susceptibility in African populations, in part by applying new mapping methods she developed in dog.

When not working to save humans or their canine companions, Elinor paints and draws, and in the winter, cross-country skis. She lives with two very domesticated cats - and no dogs.

Publications:
  1. Karlsson, E.K. & Lindblad-Toh, K. Leader of the pack: gene mapping in dogs and other model organisms. Nat Rev Genet 9, 713-25 (2008).


  2. van den Berg, L. et al. Evaluation of the serotonergic genes htr1A, htr1B, htr2A, and slc6A4 in aggressive behavior of golden retriever dogs. Behav Genet 38, 55-66 (2008). (E. Karlsson)


  3. Karlsson, E.K. et al. Efficient mapping of mendelian traits in dogs through genome-wide association. Nat Genet 39, 1321-8 (2007).


  4. Salmon Hillbertz, N.H. et al. Duplication of FGF3, FGF4, FGF19 and ORAOV1 causes hair ridge and predisposition to dermoid sinus in Ridgeback dogs. Nat Genet 39, 1318-20 (2007). (E. Karlsson)


  5. Thomas, R. et al. A cytogenetically characterized, genome-anchored 10-Mb BAC set and CGH array for the domestic dog. J Hered 98, 474-84 (2007). (E. Karlsson)


  6. Vinson, J.P. et al. Assembly of polymorphic genomes: algorithms and application to Ciona savignyi. Genome Res 15, 1127-35 (2005). (E. Karlsson)


  7. Thomas, R. et al. Construction of a 2-Mb resolution BAC microarray for CGH analysis of canine tumors. Genome Res 15, 1831-7 (2005). (E. Karlsson)


  8. Lindblad-Toh, K. et al. Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog. Nature 438, 803-19 (2005). (E. Karlsson)


  9. O'Lone, R., Frith, M.C., Karlsson, E.K. & Hansen, U. Genomic targets of nuclear estrogen receptors. Mol Endocrinol 18, 1859-75 (2004).


  10. Waterston, R.H. et al. Initial sequencing and comparative analysis of the mouse genome. Nature 420, 520-62 (2002). (E. Karlsson)