May 3, 2016
Philip Hieter, a Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Hieter is one of 84 new members and 21 foreign associates from 14 countries to be elected into The National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Dr Hieter is recognized for his work on structural and regulatory proteins that ensure faithful segregation of chromosomes during cell division, including seminal studies on yeast centromeres, sister chromatid cohesion, and regulation of cell cycle progression during mitosis. His laboratory has recently established an extensive genome instability gene catalog in yeast that provides a resource to identify cross species, candidate human genes that are somatically mutated and cause chromosome instability in cancer. He has also developed a strategy to identify genes in yeast synthetic lethal interaction networks as a means for identifying novel cancer drug targets. Throughout his career, his work has demonstrated and advocated the value of model experimental organisms for understanding mechanisms of human disease.
Dr. Hieter served as President of the Genetics Society of America in 2012. He is currently Chair of the CIHR Planning and Priorities Committee “Models and Mechanisms to Therapies”, and a Member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Gairdner Foundation. He was a Howard Hughes International Scholar from 2007 to 2012. Dr. Hieter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2012, Dr. Hieter was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was formerly the Director of the Michael Smith Laboratories.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and — with the National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council — provides science, technology, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.