Laufey Amundadottir Presents NIH Director’s Seminar
, by DCEG Staff
Laufey Amundadottir
In March 2018, Laufey Amundadottir, Ph.D., a senior investigator in the DCEG Laboratory of Translational Genomics, presented a lecture titled “From germline genetics to function: Making sense of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for pancreatic cancer risk” for the prestigious NIH Director’s Seminar Series.
Michael Gottesman, M.D., NIH Deputy Director for Intramural Research, introduced Dr. Amundadottir and remarked on her considerable expertise and leadership in the field.
Dr. Amundadottir discussed results from pancreatic cancer GWAS, conducted within the NCI-led Pancreatic Cancer Cohort Consortium. This collaborative effort has identified over 20 common pancreatic cancer risk loci. During her talk, Dr. Amundadottir highlighted the genomic and functional characterization of a subset of these loci. Her research focuses on identifying the role of these genetic alterations in a wide range of processes including telomere maintenance, RNA surveillance, and pancreatic cancer development and homeostasis.