Mackay Elected to National Academy of Sciences
Congratulations to Trudy Mackay! The William Neal Reynolds and Distinguished University Professor of Genetics and Entomology was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). She’s the ninth current NC State professor to be elected to NAS, one of the most important scientific societies in the world.
Mackay does research into the genetic and enviromental factors that affect variation in complex traits, working mostly with the fruit fly. We interviewed her for the Autumn 2006 issue of NC State magazine. Here’s what she told us when we asked why she studied fruit flies:
A big surprise when people sequenced the genomes of various species is not how different we all are, but how the same genes are recognizable in species like flies and people. If I find genes that affect how long flies live, then it’s reasonable to suggest the same genes could be tested in human studies. You can do a lot of experiments quickly with flies, and you can then test your hypotheses on higher animals.
You can read the interview below the jump. Read more about Mackay here, here and here.
A Gift in Action
Reynolds professor helps unlock the mysteries of human genetics.
Trudy Mackay, the William Neal Reynolds Professor of Genetics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is one of 30 NC State faculty members who hold a Reynolds position. Director of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco from 1890 to 1942, Reynolds created the professorships through a 1950 endowment funded by 10,000 shares of stock in his company. They provide salary support and recognition for top research, teaching and extension faculty.
“It’s very prestigious,” says Mackay, a Reynolds professor since 1996. “The designation is always attached to my name when I speak at conferences, and it makes the university look good by taking valued faculty members and doing something extra for them.”
Mackay, who in June was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of science, studies fruit flies to learn more about human genetics. She talks here about her research.
What do you hope to learn through your work?
Humans have about 24,000 genes, and about 99.98 percent of the long strings are identical. The small fraction that varies is what gives rise to all of the individual differences that you can see when you look at the population. My research is trying to track down the fraction of the genome that causes variations.
Why work with fruit flies?
A big surprise when people sequenced the genomes of various species is not how different we all are, but how the same genes are recognizable in species like flies and people. If I find genes that affect how long flies live, then it’s reasonable to suggest the same genes could be tested in human studies. You can do a lot of experiments quickly with flies, and you can then test your hypotheses on higher animals.
What traits are you studying?
We’re looking at aging, sensitivity to alcohol, behaviors like aggression, locomotion — many degenerative neuromuscular diseases in humans affect movement — glaucoma. . . . With regards to alcohol studies, for example, [zoology professor] Robert Anholt and I have found several genes in a metabolic pathway that hasn’t previously been implicated in alcohol-related traits. We are now testing, in collaboration with scientists involved in the Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts, whether molecular variants in five of these genes affect traits like alcohol intake in humans.
–Matthew Burns
(Photograph by Becky Kirkland)
Subscribe
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by NC State Alumni. NC State Alumni said: Mackay Elected to National Academy of Sciences: Congratulations to Trudy Mackay! The William Neal Reynolds an… http://bit.ly/abk3Mu #ncsu [...]