Elizabeth Leslie honored for orofacial clefts research
AUGUST 2024
Our own Elizabeth Leslie, PhD, is the 2024 recipient of the Marylou Buyse Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for Craniofacial Genetics and Developmental Biology. Her laboratory has revealed new insights into the genetics underlying phenotypic variation of orofacial clefts and identified rare variants contributing to these conditions, including the first analysis of de novo coding mutations.
This award, named after the first female president of the SCGDB, was created to recognize SCGDB members in the middle stage of their careers who have made important contributions to the craniofacial sciences. Elizabeth will receive a commemorative plaque and deliver a plenary lecture on her research at the 47th Annual SCGDB Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri.
Elizabeth received her B.A. degree in Chemistry from St. Olaf College in 2008 and Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Iowa in 2012. Her dissertation research with Dr. Jeff Murray focused on understanding the genetic architecture of Mendelian orofacial cleft syndromes, with a particular focus on Van der Woude syndrome. In 2013, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Mary Marazita for a postdoctoral fellowship in Oral Biology at the University of Pittsburgh. There she used genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify common variants associated with orofacial clefts, including the first successful GWAS of cleft palate. In 2017, Elizabeth launched her independent research program at Emory and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2022.
Elizabeth has been a member of the SCGDB since she was a graduate student, and she and her lab members have contributed to multiple annual SCGDB meetings. She has also made an impact on the field of craniofacial biology as a member of the FaceBase Scientific Advisory Panel, a member of the ClinGen Craniofacial Malformations Gene Curation Expert Panel and as Associate Editor of Human Genetics and Genomics Advances. In addition to her research, Elizabeth serves as Chair of the curriculum committee for Emory’s Genetics and Molecular Biology graduate program and as a mentor to dozens of trainees, many of whom have received prestigious fellowships.