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Katie Peichel, Ph.D. Human Biology Division |
Katie Peichel
A Word from Katie
"The very best science is the science that 95 percent of people say, 'That's crazy, that's never going to work.' It's the people who are willing to take chances and say, 'This is a great idea and I'm going to go for it.' Those are the people who make the biggest breakthroughs."
Biography
Along the shore of Seattle's Lake Washington, Katie Peichel, her dog Rufus by her side, casts fish traps into the cold, shallow water. Her intended trophies: dozens of inch-long threespine stickleback fish. They don't look like much, but they have put Katie at the forefront of a new generation of genetic researchers.
Her lab at the Hutchinson Center has established the stickleback as a new model for studying complex genetic traits. These fish have evolved great diversity in body type, behavior and life history in a relatively short time. By examining these traits, Katie is shedding light on the genetic networks at play in other complex traits, including cancer and other common human diseases.
While conducting postdoctoral research at Stanford University, Katie realized stickleback fish were ideal for genetic research. Although no one before had used the fish for genetics, Katie forged ahead undeterred with the energy and focus that also drives her to spend 12-hour days in the lab.
"The very best science is the science that 95 percent of people say, 'That's crazy, that's never going to work,'" she said. "It's the people who are willing to take chances and say, 'This is a great idea and I'm going to go for it.' Those are the people who make the biggest breakthroughs."
In the short time she has focused on sticklebacks, Katie has created the first detailed map of the fish's genome, or genetic blueprint, and developed new insight into sex determination.
"Complex traits — like cancer and other diseases — result from a combination of many genetic and environmental factors," she said. "By using sticklebacks as a model organism in the laboratory, we can begin to understand the components of these traits, and use what we learn in the fish to determine how to study similar traits in humans. Our work has important implications for the study of human disease."
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