Michael Dorrity

Group Leader

As a Group Leader in the Molecular Systems Biology Unit at EMBL Heidelberg, I generate multi-scale representations of developmental processes in order to measure temporal shifts associated with deleterious or novel phenotypes. My group uses a combination of time-resolved single-cell genomics, biochemistry, and computational biology. I received my B.S. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis and my PhD in Biology from the University of Washington, Seattle. I worked in plant genomics with Siobhan Brady during and after my undergraduate degree, continuing this line during my PhD, where I was co-advised by Christine Queitsch and Stanley Fields in the Department of Genome Sciences. During my PhD, I used deep mutational scanning to link protein variation to temperature-dependent phenotypes in yeast and developed a high-throughput experimental approach to identify dominant negative polypeptides. I trained as a postdoc in Cole Trapnell’s lab, also in Genome Sciences, and established a new paradigm for understanding effects of temperature across cells during zebrafish development.