Dickinson's research background coupled with her successful
executive leadership at one of the largest, most complex medical
schools will help drive major initiatives and research priorities
at a time of rapid growth
BAR HARBOR, Maine, May 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Mary Dickinson, Ph.D., an internationally
recognized geneticist, developmental biologist and bioengineer who
has pioneered the understanding of human disease through advanced
imaging technology, has joined The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) as the
inaugural executive vice president and chief scientific officer.
Dickinson will lead JAX's research enterprise, overseeing
scientific strategy and operations to build on JAX's unique
strengths in genetics and genomics.
"I'm exceedingly confident that Mary's broad leadership
experience supporting basic science, translational research,
innovation and commercialization at a premier medical school will
help take JAX to new heights," said JAX president and CEO
Lon Cardon, Ph.D., FMedSci. "With
this critical appointment of our chief scientific officer, our team
is well-poised to lead major advances on our strategic plan and
research priorities in 2024 and beyond."
Dickinson's connection with JAX runs deep, rooted in her
lifelong immersion in the genetics community and her longstanding
history of collaboration with JAX faculty and researchers. With
extensive, highly recognized research using mice to study
cardiovascular disease, particularly congenital birth defects,
Dickinson has a profound appreciation of the JAX mission to improve
human health and is an enduring champion of rare disease
research.
"JAX has long been known as a world leader in research
innovation, genetic mechanisms and models for disease," said
Dickinson. "JAX is far and away distinct from so many institutions
in this space, but at the same time integrated within the
biomedical community in a way that's really unique for an
organization, bridging these communities and advancing precise
genomic solutions for disease treatments and cures worldwide."
With a global outlook, Dickinson recognizes the powerful role
JAX plays in empowering the biomedical community to accelerate
discovery for diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer,
autoimmune diseases, and addiction. "JAX wants to help people make
a difference for as many people as possible, from those in rural
Maine to Tokyo," said Dickinson. "There are not many
places really positioned to do this and be in their truth about it.
I'm thrilled and so proud to be joining JAX, especially at such a
pivotal time for research."
Dickinson comes to JAX from Baylor
College of Medicine (BCM) where she most recently
served as the senior vice president and dean of research. At the
helm of Baylor's research mission for
the last four years, Dickinson partnered with nearly 30 chairs and
center directors at one of the largest and most complex medical
schools to achieve a 37% growth in sponsored awards. Under her
leadership, Baylor saw nearly
$700 million in awards in
2023.
In addition to running a thriving research program and lab,
Dickinson served as the co-principal investigator of the renowned
NIH-funded Knockout Mouse Phenotyping Program (KOMP), a
collaboration with the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium
with sites at JAX, BCM, and University of
California, Davis. She brought invaluable expertise to KOMP,
particularly by advancing imaging technology to expand the ability
to capture high-resolution data driving early-stage organ
development and providing critical insights into the regulatory
networks that govern these events. Earlier in her career, she also
worked with companies such as Zeiss to improve imaging tools for
researchers—work that enabled her team to discover that mechanical
forces can regulate genetic programs thought only to be controlled
by cell-to-cell signaling.
Dickinson earned her bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University, doctorate from Columbia University and carried out her
post-doctoral fellowship at California
Institute of Technology. Dickinson has authored more than
150 manuscripts, holds several patents and disclosures for new
microscope technologies, and has received numerous awards. She was
appointed as the Kyle and Josephine Morrow Endowed Chair in 2014,
was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and
Biological Engineering, and served as the inaugural chair of the
faculty senate at Baylor when it was
formed in 2015. She became the associate dean for research in 2017
and dean for research in 2019. In 2023, she was elected to the
Society for Developmental Biology Academy and received the Orbus
Pictus award from the International Society for Transgenic
Technology. Most recently, she was recognized with the lifetime
honor of being elected a fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
About The Jackson Laboratory
The Jackson Laboratory is
an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution with a
National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and more than
3,000 employees in locations across the United States, Japan and China. Its mission is to discover precise
genomic solutions for disease and to empower the global biomedical
community in the shared quest to improve human health. For
more information, please visit www.jax.org.
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SOURCE The Jackson Laboratory