Claire M. Fraser Fund for Graduate Education in Genomic Sciences 1

Claire Fraser: Breaking Ground & Blazing Trails

The Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) has created The Claire M. Fraser Fund for Graduate Education in Genomic Sciences to honor the legacy of its Founding Director upon her retirement in 2024. The fellowship will support various needs of graduate students doing ‘omics research at IGS, such as travel to conferences, sequencing and analysis costs, and lab supplies.

Claire M. Fraser, PhD, is a pioneer and global leader in genomic science. Early in her career at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), she was instrumental in creating high-throughput DNA sequencing which changed the field of gene discovery. She founded the field of microbial genomics in 1992, when she became first scientist to map the complete genetic code of a free-living organism—Haemophilus influenza—the bacterium that causes lower respiratory tract infections and meningitis in infants and young children. Dr. Fraser and her team also were first to sequence the bacteria behind syphilis and Lyme disease, as well as the first plant genome and first human-pathogenic parasite. She also played a major role in the sequencing of the first human genome.

In 2007, Claire Fraser brought 60 faculty and staff from TIGR to the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute for Genome Sciences. Under Dr. Fraser’s leadership, IGS scientists have continued to make important discoveries including helping the FBI investigate the Anthrax letters; studying the microbiome’s impact on human health; and implementing single-cell and spatial transcriptomic technologies to better characterize parasites, bacteria, fungi, and human cells to develop therapies and better vaccines. In 2019, Dr. Fraser served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 2020, she led IGS when it developed the state of Maryland’s first and largest high-throughput COVID-19 testing laboratory during the height of the pandemic.

“Without a doubt, a career in STEM requires hard work and sacrifice for anybody who chooses this path, but the knowledge that your work really matters makes it all worthwhile.” --Claire M. Fraser, PhD