Dr. Susan Baserga named the William H. Fleming Professor

Dr. Susan J. Baserga, recently appointed as the William H. Fleming, M.D. Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, studies fundamental aspects of ribosome biogenesis, the nucleolus, human diseases of making ribosomes (ribosomopathies), and the impact of ribosome biogenesis on cell growth, cell division and cancer.

Baserga’s laboratory uses a wide array of biochemical, genetic, and biophysical techniques to study the process and regulation of ribosome biogenesis. Her investigations of how ribosomes — the cell’s protein-making machinery — are created have been instrumental in identifying the cause of congenital diseases of making ribosomes and its impact on cell growth, cell division, and cancer. She holds three biotechnology patents related to her work in the field of eukaryotic ribosome biogenesis and its relation to cancer and human genetic diseases.

Baserga earned her B.S. and M. Phil degrees at Yale, her M.D. at the Yale School of Medicine, and her Ph.D. from Yale’s Department of Genetics. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Joan Steitz at Yale, Baserga began her academic career an assistant professor of therapeutic radiology and of genetics at the School of Medicine. In 2007, she was appointed full professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, of genetics, and of therapeutic radiology. Baserga’s current administrative positions include director of medical studies in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and program director of the Predoctoral Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology.

Baserga’s research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and has been widely published in professional journals and book chapters in edited volumes.

Baserga has received the Connecticut Technology Council Women of Innovation in Research and Leadership award, the William C. Rose Award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (for outstanding research and commitment to training young scientists), and the Charles W. Bohmfalk Prize for basic science teaching at the Yale School of Medicine. In 2018 she was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.