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Growing up in Frederick, Maryland, Kathleen Morrill had no idea that dogs like Papillon puppy Todd would contribute to her future work in genomics. Morrill, a PhD candidate in Morningside’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, is working on her dissertation on behavioral genomics in domestic dogs. Her work has already been published on the cover Science and reported in New York Times And NPR affiliate KPCC 89.3 FM.
“Dogs are a wonderful model for understanding health,” Morrill said. “They share our homes with us, so they share a common environment and the same exposure to different things. Studying dogs is our perfect partner in understanding how health problems develop. We can learn about cancer, aging, behavioral problems, and anxiety and compulsive behavior in the animal we take for granted and by our side every day.” We can learn.
Morrill is the first author on a. Paper published in Science It suggests that dog breeds are not good predictors of temperament and personality traits. Morrill and her mentor, senior author Elinor Carlson, PhD, combined genome-wide association mapping technologies with a survey of more than 18,000 pet owners. Darwin’s ArkAn open source database of owner-reported dog traits and behaviors. Carlson is an associate professor of molecular medicine at UMass Chan and director of the Vertebrate Genomics Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.
“There are a lot of stories and canons about dog breeds and what kind of behaviors they do. Our project asked owners directly about their dogs. We had thousands and thousands of participants, so we finally asked, ‘Is there a relationship between breed and behavior?’ We were able to ask the question, says Morrill, “We discovered that many breed stereotypes are not necessarily true and that we can learn a lot from mixed-breed dogs.
In June, Morrill received the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Intermediate Thesis Research. She received a Diane M. Riccio Morningside Biomedical Sciences Travel Award and an International Psychiatric Genetics Early Career Investigator Program Travel Award to support her presentation on a model of obsessive-compulsive disorders at the 2022 World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics.
As she ponders data, Morrill is helping first-year students interpret data and learn to code for a statistical boot camp. She has a bachelor’s degree in biological chemistry from Bates College, where she studied plant genetics. Between college and graduate school, she studied fruit flies during a neurobiology research internship at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. During her first year at UMass, Chan rotated through various labs that allowed Morrill to find a new enthusiasm for computational biology. Post-PhD, Morrill is looking to launch new large-scale genomics initiatives, particularly those focused on human mental health.
The Student Spotlight series features UMass Chan School of Medicine students in Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tan Qingfeng Graduate School of Nursing And TH Chan School of Medicine. For more information about UMass Chan Medical School and how to apply, visit Prospective students pg.
Related UMS Chan news stories:
Dean Lane to Graduating Biomedical Science Students: ‘You’re Solving the Big Questions’
UMass Chan’s study shows that dog behavior varies little by breed.
GSBS has recognized 52 graduate students as they begin their doctoral studies
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