Elaine Ostrander

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Elaine Ostrander
Born1958 (age 65–66)
Syracuse, New York
Alma materOregon Health & Science University
University of Washington
Harvard University
Known forResearch on prostate cancer
Conducting genetic investigations with the canis familiaris, the domestic dog model
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
  • Genetics
  • Genomics
  • Cancer Biology
InstitutionsNational Institutes of Health
National Human Genome Research Institute

Elaine Ann Ostrander is an American geneticist at the

Canis familiaris —the domestic dog— model,[3] which she has used to study disease susceptibility and frequency and other aspects of natural variation across mammals. In 2007, her laboratory showed that much of the variation in body size of domestic dogs is due to sequence changes in a single gene encoding a growth-promoting protein.[4]

Early life

Ostrander was born in

Washington.[5] She has a sister and a brother, marine biologist Gary Ostrander.[5] She attended high school at Eisenhower High School (Yakima, Washington)
.

Education

Ostrander received her

Harvard. From 1991–1993, she was a staff scientist in the Genetics and Human Genome Project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. At Berkeley, she worked in the laboratory of Jasper Rine, where the dog genome project originated.[6][7][8]

Career

Ostrander did her postdoctoral training at

Seattle, Washington
and the University of Washington for 12 years, where she rose to the rank of Member in the Human Biology and Clinical Research Divisions and head of the Genetics Program.

She came to the NIH in 2004. At NHGRI, she holds a number of professional academic appointments, serving as Distinguished Investigator, Senior Scientist and Head of the Section of Comparative Genetics, and Chief of the Cancer Genetics and Comparative Genomics Branch. She has been an NCI, DOD, DOE and NHGRI grant recipient.

Ostrander has served on the faculty of a number of leading biomedical research institutions, including the

Faculty of 1000
, and many others. In addition, she currently oversees admissions for the NIH-Oxford Cambridge Scholars Program.

The NHGRI Dog Genome Project

The primary goal of this project is to develop and apply the necessary resources for the identification and study of canine genes. This will aid in an international effort to use the dog system as a model for genetics and genomics, with a special application to cancer research.[11] Other objectives include finding genes responsible for breed-specific diseases that can inform the genetics of similar diseases in humans. Using this information, scientists hope to improve animal health while achieving a greater understanding of the genetic variants associated with human diseases.[12]

The Ostrander lab has generated whole genome sequence data for dozens of dog breeds. She has used that and related data from 175 dog breeds to understand why dog breeds behave and look differently.[9] Using this large and now public data set, the Ostrander lab seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying patterns of genetic information that occurs between different breeds of dogs, in both healthy and disease states.[12]

Ostrander leads an international team of researchers, technicians, veterinarians, population geneticists, molecular biologists, statisticians, and computer scientists to accomplish her goals.[12]

Previous trainees from the lab have gone on to become professors at major educational institutions, entrepreneurs, teachers, and science policy experts. Thus far, Ostrander's group has been able to map genes that regulate variations seen in body size, leg length, skull shape, and fur type across breeds, with many of these findings published in high-profile journals. Many of these genes are important regulators of growth, and help explain the 40-fold difference in body size observed between large and small breeds.[9]

Disease-related research is done by collecting DNA in the form of blood samples from specific purebred, registered dogs.[12] Health histories and pedigrees are also collected as well. Over time, diseases may emerge in the dogs that can be compared to the human equivalent. The group have been able to identify genes linked to retinitis pigmentosum, epilepsy, kidney cancer, soft tissue sarcomas and squamous cell cancers.[9] These results have been published in both human and veterinary literature, as the genetic underpinnings of canine genetics informs the same disease found in humans. The genes causing the disease in dogs are the same ones causing the disease in humans.

Recently, Ostrander has undertaken a large study aimed at understanding how the nearly 500 breeds which exist worldwide were each formed, and how they relate to one another. This work has revealed secrets of early breed formation as well as new findings regarding human population migration. In 2019 she published the analysis of 722 canine whole genome sequences, looking at 144 modern breeds, 54 wild canids and 100 village dogs. This documented over 91 million SNPs and small indels, creating a large catalog of genomic variation for the species.[13]

Honors

Ostrander has presented her research at national and international scientific meetings, as well as given many distinguished named lectures. In 2011, she was named NIH Distinguished Investigator. She is the author of nearly 350 scientific publications that have been cited more than 18,000 times, including more than 1,200 citations to the 2005 paper she co-authored describing the genome sequence of the domestic dog.[14][15]

In 1999, Ostrander was awarded the President's Award by the

Weill Cornell Medical College's Prostate Cancer Institute (2011). In 2013, she won the Genetics Society of America Medal in recognition of her research on the genetic basis of phenotypic variation between dog breeds and on genome-wide associations in human cancers.[17]
She was also the recipient of the NIH Oxford Cambridge Scholars Mentorship Award in 2017.

Ostrander has also served in an advisory capacity on behalf of leading professional societies, journals, and other scientific efforts in the United States, Belgium, Sweden, and others. Ostrander is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and, in 2013, she was inducted as a Fellow. She is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, the American Genetic Association, the American Association for Cancer Research, Women in Cancer Research, the Genetics Society of America, and the Association for Women in Science. Ostrander served a term on the board of directors of the American Society of Human Genetics and in 2013 received the Genetics Society of America medal.[17]

She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2019.[18]

Patents

Ostrander holds two U.S. patents: Application 20100217534 Patent Number (20110224911)[19] and Application 200901762555, both related to genetic identification of dog breeds.[citation needed]

Further reading

  • Ostrander, E. A. (3 May 2012). "Missteps and mistakes, friends and heroes" (PDF). Endocrine-Related Cancer. 19 (3): P5–P8.
    PMID 22555936
    . Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  • Ostrander, Gary; Ostrander, Elaine (March 2005). "Q & A". Current Biology. 15 (5): R151–R152.
    S2CID 32103037
    .
  • "LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: DR ELAINE OSTRANDER PhD" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 January 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  • Hopkin, Karen (August 1, 2008). "Going to the Dogs". The Scientist. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  • Derr, Mark (2013). A dog's history of America : how our best friend explored, conquered, and settled a continent. The Overlook Press.
    ISBN 9781468302660
    .
  • Women in Science at the National Institutes of Health, 2007-2008. Page 61. Bethesda, MD: Office of Research on Women's Health, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2009. Print.

References

  1. ^ "Elaine A. Ostrander, Ph.D." NIH Intramural Research Program.
  2. ^ "Women in Science at the National Institute of Health, 2007-2008" (PDF). Office of Research on Women's Health. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-11-23. Retrieved 2016-03-17.
  3. PMID 22555936
    .
  4. ^ "The importance of inspirational researchers - Research Trends". Archived from the original on 2016-04-14. Retrieved 2016-03-17.
  5. ^
    S2CID 32103037
    .
  6. ^ "The Dog Genome Project: Principles and Goals". devinefarm.net. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  7. ^ "Faculty Research Page | Department of Molecular & Cell Biology". mcb.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  8. ^ "Rine Lab Website". mcb.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  9. ^ a b c d "Ostrander Group". www.genome.gov. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  10. ^ "Elaine A. Ostrander, Ph.D. | Johns Hopkins - Institute of Genetic Medicine". igm.jhmi.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  11. ^ "The NHGRI Dog Genome Project". research.nhgri.nih.gov. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  12. ^ a b c d "Info for Dog Owners". research.nhgri.nih.gov. Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  13. PMID 30940804
    .
  14. ^ "The importance of inspirational researchers - Research Trends". www.researchtrends.com. Archived from the original on 2016-04-14. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  15. ^ "Principal Investigators". NIH Intramural Research Program. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  16. ^ "Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Elaine Ostrander Ph.D." (PDF). International Canine Health Awards. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-18. Retrieved 2018-01-27.
  17. ^
    PMID 23633134
    .
  18. ^ "2019 NAS Election". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  19. ^ US Patent Application for Methods and Materials for Canine Breed Identification. Justia Patents. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
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