| 1 | Name: | Dr. Barbara J. Meyer | |
| Institution: | Howard Hughes Medical Institute; University of California, Berkeley | ||
| Year Elected: | 2014 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 207. Genetics | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1949 | ||
Barbara J. Meyer is Professor of Genetics, Genomics, and Development at the University of California, Berkeley, and an Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She received a Ph.D. at Harvard University and was an assistant and associate professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology prior to joining the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. Barbara Meyer is a world leader in the field of chromosome structure and function. As a charter member of the community studying development of the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, she launched her elegant studies of sex determination and X-chromosome dosage compensation. Her work solved a fundamental mystery of developmental: how an organism counts the number of X chromosomes to determine sexual identity. These studies revealed mechanisms by which small quantitative differences in molecular signals dictate alternative developmental fates. Meyer further showed that molecular machines, co-opted from the ancient process of chromosome segregation, bind selectively to both X chromosomes of hermaphrodites to compact X chromosomes, repress transcription by half, and thereby equalize transcription with that from the male’s single X chromosome. Elements of the dosage compensation machinery also function in meiosis to regulate chromosome tethering and recombination along an entire chromosome. Meyer is a major participant in the development of heritable genome editing technologies that have expanded genetic studies beyond traditional model organisms and enabled evolutionary comparisons of diverse biological processes. Dr. Meyer is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Faculty Award for Women, 1985-87, MERIT Award of the National Institutes of Health, 1995-2005, and the Genetics Society of America Medal, 2010. Lshe was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1995 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2000. Barbara Meyer was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2014. | |||