Sarah Carlisle Roberts Elgin

Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri ~Viktor Hamburger Professor of Arts and Sciences Emerita; Professor of Biology Emerita; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. Pioneered new approaches to understanding the architecture of chromatin, heterochromatin, and their relationship to gene expression. Co-discovered DNAse I hypersensitive sites in eukaryotic genomes, and demonstrated nucleosome positioning at the promoters of small heat shock genes of Drosophila. Provided the first immunocytological and molecular evidence for a heterochromatin specific protein, HP1, and showed subsequently that HP1 is encoded by the Suppressor of Position Effect Variegation Su(var)205, which is functionally required for generating normal heterochromatin structure. First to demonstrate unusual regularity of nucleosome spacing in heterochromatin, with implications for gene silencing. Most recently, elucidated the overall sequence organization and evolution of Drosophila chromosome 4, using it as a model for undergraduate teaching in genome biology. As Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, founded the Genomics Education Partnership. Received the Missouri Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Award for Exemplary Contributions to Education from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society for Cell Biology's Bruce Alberts Award for Excellence in Science Education, and the Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education from the Genetics Society of America.  Member of the National Academy of Sciences, elected 2018.  ~