Using comparative functional genomics to map genetic networks

ScilifeLab Spotlight seminar series proudly welcomes Brenda J. Andrews, Ph.D., C.C., FRSC, University of Toronto

Biography

Professor Brenda Andrews earned her PhD at the University of Toronto and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with legendary yeast researcher Ira Herskowitz at the University of California San Francisco. She returned to Toronto, establishing her independent lab in the Department of Molecular Genetics (previously Medical Genetics) and later chairing the department (1999–2004). In 2004, she was appointed the inaugural director of the Donnelly Centre, leading it for 15 years.

Under her leadership, the Donnelly Centre became a hub for large-scale genomics and proteomics, known for state-of-the-art labs and robotics. She fostered a creative collaborative, interdisciplinary environment, integrating computer science, bioinformatics, chemistry, engineering, and biology to tackle fundamental biological questions and inventing technologies to answer them. The Centre’s discoveries, frequently featured in top journals, have transformed our understanding of cellular machinery and disease mechanisms. Notedly, the Donnelly Centre is also known for its productive public outreach efforts, hosting educational events aimed at instilling curiosity and love of science in the young, especially girls.

Professor Andrews launched the Accelerator for Donnelly Collaboration, a biotechnology incubator for start-ups and companies to partner with the Centre’s investigators, with the aim to exploit results obtained in the basic science into medical advances. She is the founding editor-in-chief of the journal G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics, an open access journal of the Genetics Society of America. She is also as a member on the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the primary federal funding agency for medical research, and she served as the inaugural director of the Genetic Networks program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

A pioneer in large-scale genetics and cell biology, Professor Andrews has authored over 200 publications and received numerous national and international honors, including being named a Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest national honor that can be bestowed on any Canadian citizen. She is the Canada Research Chair in Systems Genetics & Cell Biology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an international member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

As can be appreciated from this brief introduction, SciLifeLab Campus Solna shares many of the ambitions and values Professor Andrews has championed at the Donnelly Centre. We are honored to host her for a seminar in the Spotlight Series on April 29 at 15:15 in the lecture room Air&Fire. She will present the latest news regarding her genetic network projects in a seminar entitled “Using Comparative Functional Genomics to Map Genetic Networks.”

Please contact (per.ljungdahl@scilifelab.se) if you would like to speak with Professor Andrews.

Meet the speaker

After the seminar, the PhD council arranges a Meet the Speaker session, please register here if you want to take part.