Kansas City, Mo. (July 3, 2007) – Julia Zeitlinger, Ph.D., currently a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Richard Young, Ph.D., in the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at M.I.T., has accepted an appointment at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research as an Assistant Investigator. She will begin her research at the Institute later this summer.

     This appointment brings the Stowers Institute to a total of 22 independent research programs in cellular and molecular biology complemented by three technology centers devoted to bioinformatics, imaging, and proteomics.

     “We are delighted to welcome Dr. Zeitlinger to the Stowers Institute,” said William B. Neaves, Ph.D., President and CEO. “She has already performed outstanding research showing how the genes that control early differentiation of cells are regulated. This topic holds immediate interest for many scientists at the Institute, and her arrival here is eagerly anticipated by all.”

     Dr. Zeitlinger’s research uses the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to understand the gene regulatory networks that underlie cellular differentiation. One of the key methods in her research is ChIP-chip technology, a method that detects all genomic binding sites for a particular protein in one experiment. Using this technology, she has demonstrated that gene regulatory networks are often context-dependent and integrated with other networks. She hopes to build predictive models of gene regulation that could help in the diagnosis and treatment of diseased cells in humans.

     “Dr Zeitlinger is a pioneer in investigating the nature of interactions between regulatory proteins and chromosomes,” said Robb Krumlauf, Ph.D., Scientific Director. Her work is providing important insight into the detailed organization of events associated with how cells make decisions in development, differentiation, and disease. We are very excited that she will bring her creative research program to the Stowers Institute.”

     Dr. Zeitlinger earned a B.Sc. in Human Biology from King’s College London, U.K., and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology for her work with Dirk Bohmann, Ph.D., at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. She was awarded an undergraduate scholarship from the German National Merit Foundation and a long-term postdoctoral fellowship from the Human Frontier Science Program.

About the Stowers Institute
     Housed in a 600,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility on a 10-acre campus in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research conducts basic research on fundamental processes of cellular life. Through its commitment to collaborative research and the use of cutting-edge technology, the Institute seeks more effective means of preventing and curing disease. The Institute was founded by Jim and Virginia Stowers, two cancer survivors who have created combined endowments of $2 billion in support of basic research of the highest quality.