Marian B. Carlson

Coming to HHMI is “an opportunity to have a broader impact on the scientific research community,” she says, “because HHMI is an organization with the resources to fund innovative science, at a time when NIH funding is tight.”

Previously, she was at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she was vice dean for research as well as a professor of genetics and development and microbiology. She has been a faculty member at Columbia since 1981. She joined HHMI April 1, 2008.

Carlson will continue to manage her laboratory at Columbia, where she studies a family of proteins, known as the SNF1/AMP-activated protein kinases, that plants, animals, and fungi use to alter their metabolism and gene activity in response to stress. In humans, these protein kinases are associated with metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity. Carlson's lab uses yeast to study how these protein kinase signaling pathways activate the genes cells need to adapt to nutrient deprivation and other forms of environmental stress.

Together with scientific officer Carl Rhodes, Carlson will be the driving force behind HHMI's new Early Career Scientist Program, launched in March 2008 (see www.hhmi.org/research/competitions/earlycareer2009 for more information). She will work to identify opportunities for the Institute to assist young researchers in managing successful laboratories.

“Marian Carlson brings a richness of academic and administrative perspectives to the HHMI science department,” says Jack E. Dixon, vice president and chief scientific officer. “She comes to us with impeccable credentials, and we are delighted that she has joined us.”

Carlson is no stranger to HHMI. She is married to HHMI investigator Stephen P. Goff of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, who studies the replication of retroviruses.

Carlson received her A.B. summa cum laude in biochemical sciences from Harvard College and her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Stanford University. She did her postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and has also served as president of the Genetics Society of America.

Photo: Paul Fetters